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CONTACT  WITH 
THE  OTHER  WORLD 


CONTACT  WITH 
THE  OTHER  WORLD 


THE  LATEST  EVIDENCE  AS  TO 
COMMUNICATION  WITH  THE  DEAD 


BY 

JAMES  H.  HYSLOP,  Ph.D.,  LL.D 

Formerly  Professor  of  Logic  and  Ethics  in 
Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 
1919 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
HISTORICAL 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I  Introduction . 2 

II  Psychic  Phenomena  in  Antiquity . . 

III  Modern  Spiritualism . 23 

IV  The  Societies  for  Psychical  Research  ....  32 

PART  II 

PRELIMINARY  PROBLEMS 

V  The  Problem  of  a  Future  Life . 43 

VI  The  Problems  of  Evidence . 54 

VII  Human  Personality . 67 

VHI  Telepathy . 72 

IX  Instances  of  Telepathy  and  Similar  Phenomena  82 

X  The  Process  of  Communicating . 104 

PART  HI 

EVIDENCE  OF  SURVIVAL 

,  XI  Experiences  of  Well-Known  Persons  ....  125 

XH  Spontaneous  Incidents . 140 

XHI  Experimental  Incidents . 165 

XIV  Robert  Swain  Gifford . 203 

XV  Professor  James . 231 

XVI  Mark  Twain . 249 

XVII  Dr.  Isaac  K.  Funk . 282 

XVHI  Carroll  D.  Wright . 310 

XIX  Explanations  and  Objections . 326 

PART  IV 

MISCELLANEOUS  QUESTIONS 

XX  The  Physical  Phenomena  OF  Spiritualism  .  .  .  335 

XXI  Mode  of  Life  After  Death . 352 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXII  Revelations  of  the  Other  World . 366 

XXIII  Reincarnation . 377 

XXIV  Obsession . 385 

XXV  Mediumship . 401 

XXVI  The  Subconscious . 41 1 

XXVII  Spiritualism,  Religion  and  Science . 420 

XXVIII  Psychology,  Religion  and  Medicine . 428 

XXIX  Psychic  Research  and  the  War . 443 

XXX  Psychics  and  Politics . 454 

XXXI  Summary  and  Reflections  .  .  477 

Index . 489 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

yACINQ 

PAGE 

Experiments  in  Telepathy . 96 

Thompson-Giffokd  Case . 208 


PART  I 
HISTORICAL 


CONTACT  WITH 
THE  OTHER  WORLD 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

SOME  years  ago  a  well-known  college  president  thought  to 
put  an  end  to  psychic  research  with  the  public  by  calling  it 
a  return  to  fetishism.  He  has  lived  long  enough  to  learn 
that  calling  names  does  not  refute  facts,  and  we  no  longer  need 
to  apologize  for  the  subject.  When  the  work  of  investigation  was 
first  organized,  no  man’s  reputation  was  safe  unless  he  joined  in 
with  the  persiflage  of  the  Philistine  or  the  skepticism  of  the  scien¬ 
tific  world  generally.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  accusation  that 
psychic  research  is  connected  with  fetishism,  for  its  fundamental 
interest  is  in  a  doctrine  that  had  its  origin  in  what  is  known  as 
animism,  which  is  the  spiritualism  of  savages,  among  whom  it  even 
took  the  form  of  regarding  inorganic  objects  as  animate.  F)Ut 
the  attempt  to  throttle  investigation  by  invoking  the  contempt 
heaped  on  primitive  minds  was  hasty  and  ill  advised.  Those  who 
think  it  dignified  to  study  folk-lore  certainly  cannot  consider  it 
undignified  to  pursue  inquiries  into  the  real  causes  of  animism. 
But  culture  always  has  its  antagonisms,  and  none  is  stronger  than 
that  which  exists  in  the  intellectual  classes  against  ideas  supposed 
to  be  wholly  barbaric.  That  feeling  I  myself  at  one  time  shared, 
but  I  did  not  purpose  to  ignore  facts  in  the  opinions  that  I  might 
hold.  Prejudice  had  to  be  overcome  in  the  face  of  what  was 
indisputable,  or  so  wide-spread  as  to  demand  explanation.  Primi¬ 
tive  minds  may  have  been  wrong  in  their  theories,  but  they  seem 
to  have  had  facts  which  require  consideration,  even  though  v.-e 

3 


6 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


movement  of  physical  objects  without  contact,  as  well  as  the  so- 
called  materializations  of  common  fame. 

Not  all  of  these  are  of  equal  value  in  the  study  of  the  problem 
which  came  easily  to  the  front;  namely,  the  problem  of  the  existence 
of  discarnate  spirits.  The  theory  of  spirit  agency  had  been  ad¬ 
vanced  from  time  immemorial  to  cover  the  whole  field ;  but  it  was  the 
first  task  of  investigators  to  discriminate  among  the  phenomena 
and  to  determine  their  evidential  values.  For  instance,  neither 
telepathic  coincidences  nor  the  movement  of  objects  without  physi¬ 
cal  contact  is  in  itself  evidence  of  spirit  agencies.  The  field  had  to 
be  mapped  out  for  scientific  scrutiny  on  the  basis  that  many  people 
were  not  discriminating  in  the  explanation  of  the  facts.  Only  ap¬ 
paritions  and  mediumistic  phenomena  presented  any  immediately 
apparent  evidence  for  discarnate  spirits.  The  others,  however  they 
might  ultimately  be  explained,  offered  no  manifest  evidence  for 
such  a  hypothesis.  But  all  of  them  were  related  at  least  as  un¬ 
usual  phenomena  hitherto  not  explained  by  ordinary  causes,  and 
so  constituted  a  group  of  facts  that  had  been  disregarded  by  ortho¬ 
dox  science.  Psychic  research  simply  claimed  the  field  as  a  new 
country,  possibly  like  the  old,  but  not  superficially  so.  It  chal¬ 
lenged  science  to  apply  its  methods  to  the  facts  and,  if  possible, 
to  reduce  them  to  some  sort  of  natural  order. 

In  all  ages  the  discovery  of  any  new  fact  which  is  either  not 
easily  or  not  at  all  reducible  to  the  normal  has  excited  speculations 
of  all  kinds.  The  discovery  of  galvanic  electricity  roused  all  Eu¬ 
rope  to  an  interest  in  metaphysics;  even  Humboldt  wrote  a  book, 
which  he  afterward  regretted,  that  proclaimed  magnetic  forces 
to  be  the  basis  of  cosmic  causality.  The  discovery  of  radium 
started  a  revolution  in  science,  though  by  this  time  scientists  usually 
took  discoveries  of  the  kind  more  cautiously.  But  any  new  fact 
alters  the  perspective  of  previous  knowledge,  even  when  it  does 
not  revolutionize  it.  Psychic  research  was  well  adapted  to  rouse 
curiosity  on  the  subject  of  the  supersensible.  Even  telepathy  so 
threatened  the  stability  of  materialism  that  skepticism  was  irrecon¬ 
cilably  opposed  to  it,  though  telepathy  did  not  involve  spirit  agencies. 
But  phenomena  that  even  looked  like  evidence  in  favor  of  spirits 
excited  the  most  rabid  skepticism,  because  they  seemed  to  threaten 


INTRODUCTION 


7 

all  the  conquests  of  physical  science  over  the  supernatural.  Their 
recognition  seemed  to  affect  the  laboriously  built  fabric  of  natural 
science  as  well  as  to  offer  hope  and  consolation  to  the  human 
mind.  No  one  objected  to  the  latter,  but  the  sacred  structure  of 
physical  science  must  not  be  touched  by  hands  soiled  by  the  super¬ 
natural.  Consequently,  the  interest  of  two  opposing  parties  was 
strongly  aroused  by  the  claims  in  behalf  of  the  supernormal  in  so 
far  as  these  seemed  to  open  the  way  into  a  transcendental  world, 
one  of  support,  because  of  an  emotional  satisfaction,  and  the  other 
of  hostility,  because  of  the  disturbance  to  the  materialism  of  many 
years. 

It  was  at  least  impossible  to  evade  the  discussion  of  the  doctrine 
of  spiritualism  in  the  face  of  its  claims.  No  matter  what  our  deci¬ 
sion  about  telepathy,  dousing,  telekinesis,  and  hypnotism,  the  ap¬ 
parent  meaning  of  apparitions  and  mediumistic  phenomena  re¬ 
quired  further  consideration ;  and  whether  we  believed  or  disbe¬ 
lieved  in  the  spiritistic  interpretation,  we  had  to  face  the  issue. 
The  practical  and  ethical  interests  of  man  concentrated  attention 
on  this  one  question  and  subordinated  all  others,  no  matter  how 
vigorously  was  urged  the  need  of  cool  scientific  investigation. 
Spiritualism,  therefore,  gained  prominence,  and  in  the  course  of 
time  challenged  any  defender  of  materialistic  science  to  meet  it  in 
the  arena.  Skepticism  was  asked  to  consider  evidence,  and  to 
offer  some  practical  and  desirable  alternative  to  death  without 
resurrection  or  survival.  Skepticism  was  handicapped  in  such  a 
debate.  It  might  insist  on  natural  laws,  but  it  was  always  menaced 
by  the  prospect  of  contending  with  human  needs,  which  have  as 
much  influence  in  determining  many  beliefs  as  any  of  the  rigid 
standards  of  evidence  that  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  ethical 
ideals  of  man. 

The  importance  of  a  belief  in  survival  after  death  depends  partly 
on  the  conditions  of  the  age  and  partly  on  the  conceptions  we  have 
of  that  life.  There  have  been  ages  in  which  the  idea  of  immortality 
exercised  little  influence  on  the  ethical  and  social  life,  and  there 
have  been  ages  and  races  in  which  it  was  central,  determining 
even  political  institutions.  In  all  cases  its  value  depends  on  the 
existing  state  of  knowledge  and  on  belief  in  many  other  things.  If 


8  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

man’s  moral  nature  is  rightly  developed  without  the  belief  in 
immortality,  proof  will  be  more  an  intellectual  than  an  ethical 
concern;  but  in  an  age  when  the  affections  are  highly  developed, 
and  the  intellect  has  adopted  conceptions  which  virtually  nullify 
the  influence  of  the  affections,  it  will  be  a  matter  of  some  im¬ 
portance  to  learn  whether  nature  is  as  careful  of  personality  as  it 
is  of  atoms  and  matter.  We  may  play  the  part  of  Stoics  in  this 
respect  when  we  have  no  grounds  for  belief,  but  Stoicism  itself 
is  in  most  cases  a  tribute  to  that  which  it  concedes  cannot  be  ob¬ 
tained.  Few  natures  can  live  a  purely  Stoical  life.  The  most 
ethical  impulses  are  not  cast  in  that  mold;  and  we  welcome  that 
attitude  only  when  it  conforms  to  what  the  affections  teach,  though 
it  has  given  up  the  beliefs  that  fostered  them.  It  is  true  that  we 
have  to  submit  if  we  do  not  have  evidence  for  either  faith  or 
knowledge;  but  the  loss  will  not  be  compensated  by  Stoicism,  and 
most  people  will  seek  for  light  beyond  a  horizon  which  seems  to 
hide  the  future  from  us.  At  least  there  is  something  to  be  said 
for  the  hope  that  consciousness  may  be  prolonged  beyond  the 
grave.  It  is  as  natural  and  rational  as  the  impulse  toward  self- 
preservation. 

The  necessity  of  discussing  the  existence  of  spirits  at  various 
points  in  this  work  makes  it  important  here  at  the  outset  to  dispel 
certain  illusions  about  that  term.  It  is  probable  that  in  earlier 
writings  I  did  not  sufficiently  allow  for  these  illusions.  But  here  I 
shall  not  permit  readers  to  indulge  them  without  taking  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  for  them.  Nearly  all  the  difficulties  of  most  people, 
except  scientific  psychologists,  in  the  matter  of  believing  in  spirits 
depend  on  their  conception  of  the  term.  In  the  ancient  discussions 
about  idolatry,  and,  in  fact,  during  the  whole  period  of  controversy 
with  materialism,  the  believers  in  spirits  assumed  and  kept  in  the 
forefront  of  the  argument  the  fact  that  spirits  represented  super¬ 
sensible  realities  beyond  the  field  of  sensory  perception.  Even 
when  they  conceived  them  as  quasi-material,  they  did  not  forget 
their  inaccessibility  to  sensation.  But  when  the  exigencies  of  that 
controversy  passed  away  and  materialism  again  took  the  helm, 
there  was  a  return,  largely  unconscious,  perhaps,  to  the  conception 
of  spirits  as  quasi-material  or  as  representable  in  the  forms  of  sensa- 


INTRODUCTION 


9 

tion.  When  the  church  relaxed  its  hostility  to  idolatry,  it  permitted 
the  introduction  of  art  into  its  temples  and  started  the  materialism 
which  gradually  undermined  its  foundations.  In  modem  times 
esthetic  needs  and  lack  of  logical  thinking  resulted  in  conveying  to 
men’s  minds  the  idea  that  spirits  could  be  represented  in  the  forms 
of  sense  perception.  The  physical  phenomena  of  spiritualism,  es¬ 
pecially  those  of  materialization,  taught  men  to  think  of  spirits  as 
sensory  forms  of  some  kind;  and  with  sensation  as  the  standard 
of  reality,  most  people  take  imagination  and  newspaper  representa¬ 
tion  as  indicating  what  scientific  spiritists  believe  when  they  say 
they  believe  in  spirits.  It  is  this  inexcusable  error  which  has  to 
be  dispelled. 

In  the  present  work,  as  in  all  that  I  have  written  on  the  subject, 
as  I  have  often  explained  in  former  discussions,  the  term  spirit 
means  nothing  more  than  the  stream  of  consciousness  or  personality 
with  which  we  are  familiar  in  every  human  being.  Whether  it  is 
accompanied  by  what  is  called  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  of  St.  Paul, 
the  “  astral  body  ”  of  the  theosophists,  or  the  “  ethereal  organism  ” 
of  the  Greek  materialists  and  many  scientific  spiritualists  of  to-day, 
is  irrelevant  to  the  question,  and  is  not  assumed  in  this  work  or 
in  any  other  published  work  of  mine.  It  may  be  true  that  we  have 
“  spiritual  bodies  ”  not  perceptible  to  sense  and  only  occasionally 
accessible  to  supernormal  functions  of  the  mind,  when  conditions 
are  favorable.  I  am  neither  upholding  nor  denying  such  a  view. 
It  is  simply  no  part  of  the  scientific  problem  before  us.  Even  if 
one  assumes  this  spiritual  body,  one  does  not  necessarily  accept  the 
spiritistic  theory  of  the  mind.  What  we  want  to  know  is  whether 
that  spiritual  body  is  conscious  or  not,  and  conscious  with  the 
same  memory  that  the  person  had  when  living  his  earthly  life.  If 
the  spiritual  body  has  no  memory  of  the  past,  if  the  stream  of  con¬ 
sciousness  or  personalty  does  not  survive  with  it,  there  is  little  in¬ 
terest  in  the  fact  of  survival  either  as  a  spiritual  body  or  in  the  form 
of  reincarnation.  The  interesting  and  important  thing  is  the 
survival  of  personal  identity,  which  consists  wholly  in  the  stream  of 
consciousness  with  its  memory  of  the  past,  and  not  in  any  spiritual 
body,  no  matter  how  necessary  this  latter  may  be  to  the  survival 
of  the  mental  stream  itself. 


10  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  existence  of  spirit  in  this  discussion  means  the  existence  and 
survival  of  this  stream  of  consciousness  or  personality  in  independ¬ 
ence  of  the  physical  organism,  regardless  of  how  it  survives.  How 
such  a  thing  is  possible  is  another  and  separate  problem,  unaffected 
by  the  evidence  of  the  fact  of  survival.  Personal  identity  is  not 
accessible  to  sense  perception.  It  is  as  transcendental  as  atoms, 
ether  waves,  ions,  electrons,  and  other  supersensible  realities  of 
physical  science,  if  there  are  such.  The  problem  of  spiritism  is  the 
collection  of  evidence  to  show  that  consciousness  continues  after 
death;  its  difficulty  lies  wholly  in  the  strength  of  the  hypothesis 
that  consciousness  is  a  function  of  the  brain  and  requires  some 
such  structure  for  its  existence.  Indeed,  the  sensory  and  material¬ 
istic  conception  of  it  is  so  strong  that  many  people  say  to  me  that 
they  do  not  see  how  consciousness  can  survive  without  a  brain. 
They  are  so  fixed  in  the  modern  theory  that  consciousness  is  a 
mere  function  or  phenomenon  of  the  brain  that  they  cannot  con¬ 
ceive  of  this  as  an  unproved  hypothesis.  When  one  makes  sense 
perception  the  criterion  o»f  truth,  it  is  natural  to  make  this  assump¬ 
tion,  especially  when  all  normal  experience  shows  the  constant  asso¬ 
ciation  of  consciousness  with  a  physical  organism  and  reveals  no 
traces  of  it  when  the  body  is  dissolved.  But  the  absence  of  evi¬ 
dence  for  survival  is  not  evidence  of  the  absence  of  it ;  hence  only 
normal  experience  favors  materialism.  Supernormal  experience, 
if  proved,  suggests  a  very  different  interpretation;  it  brings  us  in 
contact  with  the  supersensible.  In  normal  life,  consciousness  in 
all  its  forms  is  a  supersensible  reality,  even  when  we  suppose  it 
to  be  wholly  dependent  on  the  physical  organism.  In  asking  people 
to  believe  in  spirits  we  ask  them  only  to  suspend  the  dogmatic  as¬ 
surance  that  materialism  has  said  the  last  word  on  the  problem; 
simply  to  be  as  skeptical  about  materialism  as  they  are  about  spirit¬ 
ism.  They  may  then  be  in  a  position  to  discover  the  iljusions  which 
have  affected  all  their  thinking  on  this  subject.  If  they  simply 
try  to  understand  what  psychic  research  is  aiming  at,  and  so  dis¬ 
regard  the  question  of  a  spiritual  body ;  the  quasi-material  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  soul,  as  not  the  primary  question,  and  acknowledge  that 
we  are  only  trying  to  ascertain  if  personal  consciousness  survives 


INTRODUCTION 


11 


as  a  fact,  and  not  how  it  survives,  they  will  find  the  problem  very 
much  simplified. 

Consequently,  in  this  work  and  in  all  the  publications  of  the  So¬ 
ciety  for  Psychical  Research  the  term  “  spirit  ”  stands  for  the 
personal  stream  of  consciousness,  whatever  else  it  may  ultimately 
be  proved  to  imply  or  require;  and  all  the  facts  bearing  on  the 
issue  must  be  conceived  as  evidence,  not  necessarily  as  attesting  the 
nature,  or  any  sensible  conception,  of  spirit. 


CHAPTER  II 

PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY 


IF  it  had  not  been  for  our  present  knowledge  of  psychic  phenom¬ 
ena,  no  matter  what  the  explanation  of  them,  we  should  be 
unable  to  make  intelligible  most  of  the  stories  that  have  come 
down  to  us  from  ancient  times.  But  present  knowledge  makes  it 
easy  to  understand  their  meaning.  Even  savages  were  conversant 
with  psychic  phenomena,  in  tlie  form  of  superstitions.  Savage,  no 
less  than  civilized  imaginations,  went  far  beyond  the  facts  in  their 
efforts  to  explain  them,  went  so  far  that  science  has  ever  been  dis¬ 
posed  to  cite  these  imaginings  as  proof  of  feeble  intellectuality,  as 
superstitions  which  it  has  been  the  achievement  of  civilization  to 
overthrow.  Tylor’s  “  Primitive  Culture,”  Herbert  Spencer’s  works, 
Frazer’s  “  Belief  in  Immortality  among  Savages  ”  and  many  similar 
works,  as  well  as  the  legends  of  folk-lore,  bear  testimony  to  the 
existence  of  psychic  phenomena  in  the  earliest  times,  even  though 
we  make  due  allowance  for  magic,  fraud,  hysteria,  and  morbid  con¬ 
ditions.  Dreams  and  sorcery  seem  to  have  been  the  chief  forms 
of  manifestation.  In  dreams  the  savage  mind  seemed  to  find 
evidence  of  survival,  and  in  sorcery  and  magical  rites  it  seemed 
to  find  means  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the  dead  or  to  propitiate  their 
anger.  The  study  of  savage  beliefs  will  some  day  be  deemed  as 
important  as  it  is  interesting  in  this  respect,  but  only  as  throwing 
light  upon  the  history  of  psychic  phenomena.  In  all  ages  these 
phenomena  participate  in  the  character  and  preconceptions  of  the 
people  affected  by  them.  Their  form  is  influenced  and  shaped  by 
the  preconceptions  of  normal  experience.  Moreover,  savages  as¬ 
sumed  a  reality  in  their  experiences  which  the  modern  psychic  re¬ 
searcher  does  not  assume.  They  interpreted  occurrences  accord¬ 
ing  to  superficial  appearance ;  but  we  have  learned  from  the  distinc¬ 
tion  between  subjective  and  veridical  hallucinations  that  these  may 
have  a  genuine  import  even  when  they  are  only  quasi-material. 

12 


PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY  13 

This  is  particularly  true  of  apparitions  and  voices.  The  signifi¬ 
cant  fact  regarding  savages  is  that  identical  ideas  of  the  soul  arose 
among  tribes  that  had  never  had  any  communication  with  one 
another,  tribes  as  far  separated  as  the  Australians,  the  New-Zea- 
landers,  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  the  Africans,  and  the  North 
American  Indians.  Tradition  cannot  account  for  these  similarities, 
but  similar  experiences  can  explain  them. 

But  we  cannot  dwell  here  upon  savage  customs.  They  are  only 
the  antecedents  that  help  to  explain  the  deviations*  and  survivals  of 
certain  ideas  and  customs  in  more  civilized  times.  Perhaps  we 
should  not  know  the  significance  of  these  primitive  customs,  were 
it  not  for  the  survival  of  savages  on  the  boundaries  of  civilization. 
But  when  they  are  once  known,  much  becomes  intelligible  that  could 
not  easily,  if  at  all,  be  otherwise  unraveled.  The  more  civilized 
periods  arose  out  of  the  earlier  conditions  and  were  characterized 
by  a  revolt  against  them,  which  embodied  itself  now  in  a  philosophy 
and  now  in  some  form  of  purified  religion. 

A  more  interesting  period  is  that  which  followed  savage  times, 
in  which  the  superstitions  of  earlier  people  were  partly  outgrown. 
The  ancestor-worship  of  China  and  Japan  is  the  oldest  survival  of 
animism,  which  is  the  belief  of  primitive  races.  As  culture  ad¬ 
vanced,  this  worship  took  various  forms.  The  more  intelligent 
classes  dropped  the  ideas  of  the  more  ignorant  and  substituted  re¬ 
spect  for  the  memory  of  ancestors  in  place  of  fear  of  their  in¬ 
fluence  as  spirits.  But  there  were  other  and  rival  beliefs.  When 
Buddhism  and  Confucianism  arose,  the  former  denying  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirits  and  the  latter  admitting  their  existence,  but  dis¬ 
regarding  their  importance,  ancestor-worship  underwent  modifica¬ 
tions.  Brahminism,  the  philosophic  upholder  of  immortality,  sub¬ 
stituted  a  supersensible  conception  of  the  soul  for  the  quasi-mater¬ 
ial  idea  of  earlier  times.  But  Buddhism  directly  attacked  Brahmin¬ 
ism,  and,  by  denying  all  survival,  including  personal  immortality  as 
the  Brahmins  understood  it,  tended  to  uproot  ancestor-worship. 
Confucius  admitted  that  spirits  exist;  but  his  system  was  primarily 
concerned  with  secular  ethics  and  laid  no  stress  on  the  doctrine  of 
survival.  In  political  and  social  problems,  all  of  these  religions 
compromised  with  animism  and  made  concessions  to  it.  To-day 


14  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

we  have  every  conceivable  form  of  belief  among  the  Oriental  races. 
Ancestor-worship,  in  most  cases  simply  the  spiritualism  of  the 
East,  survives  as  the  exponent  of  immortality.  Its  influence  is  evi¬ 
dent  in  the  widely  extended  belief  of  the  Chinese  in  demoniac  posses¬ 
sion. 

Judaism  in  its  early  period,  when  it  attacked  idolatry,  was  in 
essence  an  assault  on  fetishism  or  animism.  The  pure  theism  of 
Moses  marked  an  advance  in  a  more  philosophic  conception  of 
the  world,  and  represented  the  same  intellectual  movement  as  that 
of  Xenophanes  and  the  Eleatics  in  Greece.  In  fact,  it  was  more 
or  less  synchronous  with  the  rise  of  Buddhism  and  other  religions  in 
the  Orient,  and  at  one  period  was  contemporary  with  the  intellectual 
development  of  Greek  philosophy.  In  calling  the  worship  which 
preceded  theism  “  idolatry,”  modern  minds,  if  ignorant  of  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  animism,  would  mistake  the  nature  of  the  movement. 
Animism  had  various  forms,  from  the  most  superstitious  type  to 
an  advanced  stage  of  spiritualism,  as  represented  in  mediumship. 
Its  most  objectionable  form  was  fetishism.  A  more  familiar  form 
is  represented  in  incidents  like  that  of  the  Witch  of  Endor,  and, 
among  the  common  people,  in  the  general  recognition  of 
mediumistic  phenomena,  which  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the 
state  religion  to  persecute.  The  intellectuals  of  the  age  opposed 
the  lower  types  of  belief  in  the  interest  of  a  purer  religion  or  ethics 
and  even  identified  themselves  with  what  we  should  now  regard  as 
the  scientific  spirit.  Judaistic  theism  recognized  the  idea  of  God 
as  absolute  unchangeableness,  while  fetishism  made  Him  or  other 
discarnate  realities  altogether  capricious  and  unmoral.  In  making 
the  Divine  unchangeable,  the  intellectuals  identified  God  with  nat¬ 
ural  law.  It  was  only  the  later  emergence  of  Christianity,  with 
its  appeal  to  the  supernatural,  which  reinstated  the  animistic  con¬ 
ception  of  the  Divine.  Had  religion  held  to  the  notion  of  natural 
law,  it  might  have  escaped  the  consequences  of  its  identification 
of  the  Divine  with  the  irregular  and  capricious.  The  elder  Judaism 
was  virtually  identical  with  the  movement  of  Xenophanes  in  Greece, 
in  so  far  as  the  conception  of  God  was  concerned,  and  represented 
philosophy  versus  superstition. 

The  origin  of  Christianity  was  associated  with  psychic  phenomena 


PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY  15 

to  a  marked  degree.  The  story  of  the  transfiguration,  and  the 
appearance  of  Moses  and  Elias  on  the  mount  is  a  conspicuous  in¬ 
stance.  It  does  not  make  any  difference  whether  it  be  true  or 
not ;  it  was  told,  and  modern  psychic  research  has  made  it  entirely 
credible,  even  though  we  give  it  no  other  import  than  that  of  an 
hallucination,  objective  or  veridical.  Furthermore,  there  is  the 
story  of  Christ  and  the  woman  at  the  well;  and  that  of  Christ 
walking  on  the  water,  which  is  not  regarded  as  a  physical  miracle 
in  the  New  Testament,  for  it  is^^not  his  physical  body,  but  his  spirit 
— ^jthe  revised  version  says  apparition  —  that  is  represented  as  walk¬ 
ing  on  the  water.  We  have  the  story  of  the  disciples  on  the  way  to 
Emmaus  after  Christ’s  crucifixion;  the  story  of  St.  Paul’s  vision  on 
the  way  to  Damascus,  when  he  thought  he  saw  his  Lord  after  the 
crucifixion;  the  speaking  with  tongues  on  the  day  of  Pentecost; 
the  miracles  of  healing,  which  have  been  repeated  a  thousand  times 
since  that  period,  in  more  or  less  striking  manner;  and  lastly  the 
story  of  the  resurrection,  which  investigation  shows  was  con¬ 
nected  with  the  phenomena  of  apparitions.  The  very  term  is  the 
same  as  that  used  for  such  phenomena  by  Homer,  Herodotus, 
.^schylus,  and  Sophocles.  Many  theologians  have  held  this  view 
independently  of  and  even  previous  to  psychic  research.  In  addi¬ 
tion,  we  have  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  doctrine  of  St.  Paul  and  the 
remarkable  classification  of  the  types  of  mediumship,  or  “  spiritual 
gifts,”  described  by  him  in  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth 
chapters  of  First  Corinthians;  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  same 
book  developed  his  doctrine  of  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  and  the 
resurrection. 

What  followed  among  the  early  Christian  fathers,  especially 
among  the  Greek  philosophers  who  accepted  Christianity,  proves  this 
genesis  of  Christianity  in  psychic  phenomena.  I  shall  have  occa¬ 
sion  to  refer  to  them  a  little  later.  But  the  controversy  about  the 
resurrection  between  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees,  before  the 
story  was  told  of  Christ,  indubitably  proves  that  Christianity  simply 
followed  the  common  beliefs  of  the  age  and  had  no  antagonist  ex¬ 
cept  materialism  and  orthodox  institutions  interested  in  preserving 
the  political  fabric  at  the  time.  Those  familiar  with  the  whole 
field  of  psychic  phenomena  can  easily  recognize  them  in  the  various 


i6  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


incidents  of  real  or  alleged  spiritual  healing  narrated  in  the  New 
Testament.  Suggestion,  trance,  mediumship,  and  telepathy  are 
apparent  in  the  record;  were  it  as  perfect  as  later  records  are,  we 
might  discover  still  more  evidence  of  this  affiliation. 

Greek  philosophy,  like  all  similar  movements  in  the  Orient  and 
Palestine,  was  a  protest  against  the  polytheism  of  the  preceding 
period,  with  a  remote  relation  to  fetishism  and  animism.  When 
it  arose,  it  seems  to  have  been  unaware  of  fetishism,  the  worship  of 
“  stocks  and  stones,”  against  which  Judaism  was  directed. 
Polytheism  had  succeeded  Fetishism,  which  was  either  forgotten  or 
ignored  without  being  seriously  considered.  But  the  interest  in 
monotheism  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  scientific  tendencies  on  the 
other,  evoked  an  attack  by  the  materialists  on  polytheism  and  in¬ 
cidentally  on  all  theistic  conceptions.  In  its  inception  the  move¬ 
ment  coincided  with  the  same  tendency  at  that  time  in  other  coun¬ 
tries. 

But  the  earlier  philosophers  did  not  wholly  escape  the  influence 
of  animism.  Even  the  Ionian  materialists,  or  physicists,  as  they 
are  usually  called,  admitted  the  existence  of  souls;  and  the  ma¬ 
terialists  like  Empedocles  and  Democritus  frankly  admitted  the 
existence  of  souls  and  their  survival,  one  of  them  even  avowing 
reincarnation.  But  they  did  not  admit  these  agencies  into  causal 
relations  with  the  cosmos  or  man.  They  initiated  that  conception 
of  the  divine  which  terminated  in  the  more  distinctly  avowed  and 
logical  doctrine  of  the  Epicureans,  namely,  that  the  gods,  though 
they  exist,  have  no  causal  relation  to  the  physical  world.  They 
substituted  what  may  be  called  material  causes  for  efficient  causes 
in  the  explanation  of  the  cosmos.  The  elements  or  atoms  were 
held  to  be  the  constituent  material  of  things,  explaining  what  things 
are,  their  qualitative,  though  not  their  temporal,  origin. 

Later  thinkers  had  to  compromise  with  the  idea  of  creative  or  effi¬ 
cient  causes,  which  Socrates,  Anaxagoras,  Plato,  and  Aristotle  to 
some  extent  acknowledged.  In  so  far  as  they  did  so,  they  either 
bordered  on  the  recognition  of  the  spiritual,  which  the  physicists 
and  materialists  excluded  from  their  explanation  of  the  universe; 
or  they  openly  avowed  this  spiritual  intervention.  But  even  the 
earlier  thinkers,  supposed  by  most  historians  of  philosophy  to  have 


PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY  17 

had  nothing  to  do  with  modern  spiritualistic  ideas,  admitted  them 
in  many  details,  from  which  students  of  psychic  research  can  easily 
reconstruct  the  whole  doctrine.  For  these  thinkers  excluded 
spiritistic  ideas  only  from  the  interpretation  of  nature;  spiritual 
realities  were  held  to  exist  side  by  side  with  material  phenom¬ 
ena.  In  this  acknowledgment  we  find  the  dualism  of  Greek 
thought,  from  which  it  never  escaped  until  materialism  totally 
denied  the  existence  of  spirit  of  any  kind. 

Plato  was  familiar  with  the  popular  view  and  embodied  it  in  his 
celebrated  narrative  about  the  destiny  of  the  soul  after  death ;  but 
he  distinctly  asserted  that  this  story  was  mythical.  His  doctrine  of 
immortality  was  conceived  after  the  analogy  of  our  conservation 
of  energy.  He  believed  in  reincarnation,  or  transmigration  of 
souls,  and  often  expressed  himself  as  if  the  conception  were  the 
same  as  that  of  some  modern  believers ;  but  he  did  not  assume  the 
survival  of  personal  identity.  This  theory  is  what  connects  his 
view  with  our  notion  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  by  which  the 
form  of  matter  in  one  condition  is  not  retained  in  another.  He  was 
careful  to  repudiate  the  popular  ideas  and  to  maintain  transmigra¬ 
tion  as  a  philosophical  doctrine,  though  it  is  probable  that,  just 
after  the  death  of  Socrates,  his  emotional  interest  influenced  him  to 
hold  to  personal  survival.  But  when  he  came  to  test  it  by  his 
philosophic  doctrine,  he  adopted  a  view  which  is  not  consistent  with 
personal  survival. 

Aristotle  also  believed  in  immortality,  but  he  carefully  distin¬ 
guished  between  the  immortality  of  the  “  rational  ”  soul  and  that  of 
the  “  animal  ”  soul.  He  denied  the  latter.  But  he  was  generally 
so  reticent  about  what  he  meant  that  his  real  doctrine  is  a  matter 
of  conjecture.  He  believed  in  premonitory  dreams  and  tried  to 
explain  them  away  in  some  natural  manner,  but  confessed  that  he 
was  not  sure  of  success.  He  w'as  probably  familiar  with  the  popu¬ 
lar  spiritualism;  and,  if  so,  we  may  surmise  that  his  “animal” 
soul  was  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  assumed  by  him  and  others  to  be 
the  basis  of  vital  phenomena,  but  not  of  consciousness;  in  this  case 
the  “  rational  ”  soul  would  be  simply  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
self-consciousness,  which  survived  in  some  way  that  he  could  not 
intelligibly  represent.  But  he  was  not  interested  in  the  doctrine 


i8  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


and  probably  referred  to  it  only  because  philosophy  could  not 
escape  its  consideration.  Since  he  had  to  leave  Athens  to  escape 
persecution,  he  probably  veiled  his  own  agnostic  views  in  the 
distinction  mentioned;  it  may  have  meant  no  more  than  Plato’s 
transmigration,  though  possibly  evoking  less  hostility. 

The  Stoics  believed  in  some  form  of  immortality,  perhaps  adopt¬ 
ing  the  view  of  Aristotle,  though  they  did  not  always  regard  it  as 
an  essential  belief  either  for  explaining  the  world  or  for  establish¬ 
ing  a  basis  for  ethics.  The  Epicureans  admitted  the  existence  of 
the  soul,  or  “  ethereal  organism,”  “  spiritual  body  ”  of  St.  Paul, 
but  they  denied  that  it  survived  death.  They  were  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  popular  spiritualism,  but  rejected  all  its  beliefs 
except  the  doctrine  of  an  “  ethereal  organism,”  which  they  rather 
inconsistently  held  to  be  a  fine  form  of  matter,  since  they  affirmed 
at  the  same  time  the  indestructibility  of  matter  and  the  perishability 
of  the  soul.  Perhaps  they  preserved  consistency  by  conceiving  the 
“  ethereal  organism  ”  as  complex  and  assuming  that  all  complex 
organisms  at  some  time  dissolved  or  perished. 

This  brief  outline  of  Greek  ideas  shows  throughout  a  thread  of 
animism  or  primitive  spiritualism.  The  attempt  to  explain  change 
inevitably  introduced  the  idea  of  efficient  causes ;  and  with  these  the 
popular  mind,  relying  on  oracles,  who  were  the  Greek  mediums, 
fraudulent  or  otherwise,  and  on  apparitions  {anastasis,  the  Greek 
term  for  resurrection),  felt  secure  in  defending  survival  after 
death.  But  the  philosophic  mind,  which  always  opposes  the  in¬ 
terpretations  of  naive  realism,  could  protect  itself  only  by  an  agnos¬ 
tic  or  hostile  attitude  toward  the  doctrines  that  had  their  origin 
in  the  earlier  form  of  animism.  The  spiritualistic  interpretation 
of  man’s  destiny  survived  side  by  side  with  these  philosophic  views. 
The  two  doctrines  were  combined  in  Neo-Platonism,  whose  chief 
followers  tried  to  reconcile  philosophic  with  popular  ideas. 
Whether  they  succeeded  or  not  it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire.  What 
we  know  of  Plotinus  and  his  followers  shows  that  they  took  seri¬ 
ously  the  phenomena  which  had  given  rise  to  the  popular  doc¬ 
trine,  and  tried  to  explain  them  in  accordance  with  the  abstruse 
idealistic  metaphysics  of  the  time  and  of  later  Christianity. 

There  was  a  period  between  Epicureanism  and  Christianity  in 


PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY  19 

which  the  traces  of  philosophic  and  scientific  thought  were  almost 
lost.  No  men  of  special  historic  note  have  survived  in  the  records 
of  their  contemporaries.  Antiquarians  might  pick  up  stray  evi¬ 
dence  of  both  philosophy  and  psychic  phenomena  in  that  interval, 
but  it  was  Christianity  that  precipitated  a  return  to  the  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  facts.  Philosophy  had  gone  to  seed.  The  intellectuals 
had  rejected  facts  as  superstition  and  had  wallowed  in  speculation 
and  imagination  until  respectable  orthodoxy  could  do  nothing  else. 
The  common  people  again,  as  usual,  raised  the  issue  by  an  appeal 
to  facts,  and  occasioned  a  revival  of  interest  in  the  popular  ideas 
which  Greek  philosophy  had  repudiated  just  as  Old  Testament 
Judaism  had  rejected  animism.  This  revival  manifested  itself  in 
Neo-Platonism.  Its  founder  was  Ammonius  Saccas  and  its  chief 
representatives  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  and  Jamblichus.  These  men 
lived  in  the  second  and  into  the  third  century  after  Christ.  The 
historians  of  philosophy  say  little  or  nothing  about  their  mysticism, 
and  give  an  account  only  of  their  conclusions,  which  have  no  mean¬ 
ing  apart  from  the  facts  that  determined  them.  The  Neo-Platon- 
ists  were  well  versed  in  all  the  practices  of  spiritualism;  indeed 
one  modern  author  of  great  learning  maintains  that  they  knew 
more  about  it  and  were  in  this  respect  more  rational  than  the 
moderns,  such  as  Judge  Edmunds,  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  and  their 
followers.  Plotinus  went  into  trances,  about  which  little  or  no 
information  is  given  us  by  the  orthodox  historians  of  philosophy. 
Jamblichus  gives  minute  accounts  of  the  forms  of  psychic  phenom¬ 
ena,  especially  phantasms  and  materializations,  which  he,  more 
rational  than  modern  spiritualists,  identifies  with  apparitions. 
Apollonius  of  Tyana  was  more  or  less  an  adept  in  the  subject, 
though,  despite  acknowledged  good  traits  of  character,  he  passed 
among  skeptics  as  an  impostor.  No  doubt  some  of  these  men  did 
not  report  their  facts  in  such  a  way  as  to  escape  the  skepticism 
roused  by  methods  of  deception,  which  existed  then  as  they  do  to¬ 
day.  But  the  ensemble  of  incidents  reported  by  men  of  intel¬ 
ligence  created  a  presumption  that  where  there  was  so  much  smoke 
there  must  have  been  some  fire.  This  is  evident  in  the  essay  of 
Plutarch  on  “  The  Cessation  of  the  Oracles.’’  Many  of  the  stories 
bear  the  marks  of  imperfect  observation ;  for  this,  and  for  fraud. 


20  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Plutarch  allows.  From  his  account,  any  one  familiar  with  proved 
modern  psychic  phenomena  can  recognize,  after  proper  discounts, 
the  existence  of  the  same  phenomena  then  as  to-day. 

The  author  of  “  The  Apocatastasis,”  a  classical  scholar  in  one 
of  the  American  colleges,  who  went  over  the  whole  subject  thor¬ 
oughly,  calls  attention  to  the  trial  of  Apuleius  for  “  witchcraft  ” 
before  a  Roman  judge  on  account  of  his  experiments  with  an 
epileptic  boy.  Isodorus,  the  philosopher,  describes  a  woman  who 
poured  water  into  a  glass  vessel  and  therein  beheld  phantasms 
representing  future  events;  this  is  an  instance  of  crystal  gazing. 

The  author  just  quoted,  after  canvassing  the  whole  of  antiquity 
upon  the  subject,  summarizes  the  phenomena  in  the  following  man¬ 
ner  : 

“  The  methods  of  intercourse  between  the  two  worlds  and  of 
prying  into  futurity  were  by  means  of  oracles,  omens,  dreams,  the 
lot,  astrology,  magical  divination  (the  ancient  mesmerism),  aided 
by  magical  statues,  tripods,  rings,  spheres,  water,  mirrors;  and 
necromancy  proper,  or  the  evocation  of  and  direct  conversation 
with  the  spirits  of  the  dead.” 

He  then  catalogues  all  the  types  of  phenomena  in  relation  to  mod¬ 
ern  records.  It  is  a  remarkable  list. 


“  Physical 

Lights,  both  fixed  and  moved. 

Halo,  encircling  the  medium. 

Spectra,  luminous,  or  otherwise  visible. 

Self-visible  spirits. 

Sounds,  cries,  voices  in  the  air,  trumpets,  speaking  spectres  (ma¬ 
terializations),  musical  intonations,  musical  instruments 
played. 

“  Physiological 

Trance. 

Magnetic  sleep. 

Magnetic  insensibility. 

“  Psychological  or  Physico-psychological. 

Spirit  speaking,  spirit  writing. 


PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  IN  ANTIQUITY  21 

Speaking  unknown  languages  (‘speaking  with  tongues,’  echola- 
lia). 

Answering  mental  questions. 

Clairvoyance,  in  relation  to  both  time  and  space. 

Magnetization,  by  the  eye,  the  hand,  music,  or  water. 

Spirits  answering  questions  through  mediums  or  without 
mediums.” 

The  author  might  have  added  to  this  list  the  reading  of  the 
contents  of  sealed  letters,  of  which  he  reports  a  case  or  two. 

It  matters  not  whether  the  phenomena  were  genuine  or  not. 
Some  of  them  represent  types  of  occurrences  which  have  good 
credentials  in  modern  times,  though  others  remain  to  be  proved. 
Certain  physical  phenomena  still  have  to  prove  their  claims,  but 
many  of  the  mental  type,  though  they  belong  to  abnormal  psychol¬ 
ogy,  have  their  genuineness  established. 

The  same  author  quotes  from  Plutarch  a  remarkable  statement 
which  shows  not  only  critical  acumen  on  the  part  of  that  intelligent 
Roman,  but  also  a  distinct  anticipation  of  the  theory  of  interfusion 
of  the  minds  of  the  medium  and  the  spirit  in  the  delivery  of  mes¬ 
sages.  It  occurs  in  the  account  of  his  observations  in  connection 
with  the  Pythian  oracle : 

“  If  the  verses  of  the  Pythia  are  inferior  to  those  of  Homer,  we  need 
not  suppose  that  Apollo  is  the  author  of  them.  He  merely  gives  the  im¬ 
pulse  whereby  each  prophetess  is  moved  according  to  her  peculiar  dis¬ 
position.  For  if  the  responses  were  to  be  given  by  writing  instead  of 
speaking,  I  do  not  think  the  letters  (grammata)  supposed  to  be  written 
by  the  god  would  be  found  fault  with  because  they  lacked  the  caligraphy 
of  royal  epistles;  —  for  the  voice,  the  intonation,  the  diction,  and  the 
metre,  are  not  the  god’s  but  the  woman’s.  He  only  causes  visions  and 
supplies  light  to  the  soul  in  relation  to  the  future.” 

There  is  evidence  in  modern  investigations  that  a  foreign  stim¬ 
ulus  is  always  present  to  give  rise  to  subconscious  recollections  and 
interpretations  and  that  the  phenomena  are  not  always,  if  they 
are  ever,  pure  invention  by  the  psychic.  There  is  the  intermingling 
of  two  minds.  Transmission  of  thought  is  not  merely  the  process 
of  delivering  messages  verbatim;  it  is  never  free  from  subcon¬ 
scious  modification  by  the  medium  through  which  it  comes.  In  the 


22 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


passage  from  Plutarch  we  have  an  observation  which  is  confirmed 
by  modern  experiment. 

Plutarch  lived  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era;  his  work 
on  this  subject  therefore  coincided  with,  and  may  have  been  influ¬ 
enced  by,  the  new  interest  created  by  Christianity  in  psychic  phe¬ 
nomena.  But  from  this  time  on,  the  subject  was  more  or  less  con¬ 
fined,  so  far  as  favorable  notice  of  the  facts  is  concerned,  to  the 
Christian  Fathers.  The  rising  conflict  between  paganism  and  the 
new  creed  tended  to  discredit  the  oracles,  one  side  opposing  them 
because  they  did  not  favor  Christianity,  and  the  other  unable  to 
defend  them  from  the  philosophic  point  of  view.  Christianity  had 
control  of  the  situation  for  the  long  period  of  its  domination;  the 
works  of  the  Fathers  are  full  of  stories  of  the  continuance  of 
miracles,  though  on  the  whole  they  rapidly  declined  in  number  after 
the  crucifixion,  or  at  least  after  the  end  of  the  first  century.  On 
the  whole  neither  this  period  nor  that  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
oracles  can  be  quoted  except  as  evidence  that  better  accredited  phe¬ 
nomena  in  modern  times  had  their  antecedents  in  antiquity  :  and  if 
we  do  not  reject  them  as  wholly  idle  tales,  it  will  be  because  we  have 
proved  the  existence  of  the  super-normal  in  the  present  age. 


CHAPTER  III 
MODERN  SPIRITUALISM 


IT  is  a  curious  fact  that  most  investigators  connected  ^vith  the 
English  society  for  Psychical  Research  have  associated  modern 
spiritualism  with  the  Fox  sisters  almost  exclusively,  though 
conceding,  with  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  that  it  has  its  roots  far  back  in 
the  earliest  history  of  man.  There  is  little  excuse  for  this  nar¬ 
rowness  of  view,  though  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Fox  sisters 
gave  the  subject  a  popular  vogue  which  it  did  not  have  until  their 
experiences  excited  attention. 

Modern  spiritualism  really  originated  in  the  work  of  Swedenborg. 
The  phenomena  of  Swedenborg  were  not  physical,  as  were  many 
of  those  alleged  by  the  Fox  sisters.  They  were  of  the  mental  type, 
consisting  of  visions  with  his  own  interpretation  of  them  —  illus¬ 
trations  of  the  type  now  called  pictographic.  While  such  phe¬ 
nomena  have  been  casually  reported  in  literature  ever  since  the 
time  of  the  Christian  fathers,  these  reports  were  given  little  cre¬ 
dence  until  similar  reports  by  Swedenborg  made  them  seem  more 
credible.  He  was  a  man  of  good  education  and  creditable  probity, 
who  never  exploited  his  powers  as  did  the  charlatans  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  He  was  born  in  1688  and  died  in  1772.  These  dates 
placed  him  before  the  time  of  the  great  revolution  in  philosophic 
thought  brought  about  by  Immanuel  Kant.  He  was  educated  at 
the  University  of  Upsala  and  became  a  civil  engineer.  He  made 
himself  famous  in  almost  every  department  of  science,  and  even 
anticipated  Kant  and  Laplace,  according  to  Grieve,  in  the  nebular 
hypothesis.  He  also  suggested  a  flying-machine  and  produced  a 
model  which  he  knew,  and  said,  would  not  work,  but  which  he 
thought  would  suggest  the  principles  on  which  such  a  machine  might 
be  constructed.  His  inventions  in  other  fields  were  numerous  and 
successful.  But  we  hear  less  of  them  than  of  his  philosophical 

23 


24  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

works  in  the  sphere  of  religion  and  real  or  alleged  supernormal 
psychology.  When  he  was  in  London  he  claimed  to  have  obtained 
by  supernormal  means  information  of  a  fire  in  Copenhagen.  There 
was  reported  of  him  also  the  clairvoyant  discovery  of  a  lost  paper, 
which  strongly  impressed  Kant.  But  his  “  revelations  ”  appealed 
to  more  minds  than  did  these  trivial  supernormal  phenomena. 
These  revelations  purported  to  come  from  discarnate  spirits,  to 
reveal  the  nature  of  the  next  life,  and  to  give  instruction  on  all 
religious  matters  of  importance  to  human  kind.  Swedenborg’s 
works  abound  with  evidence  that  much  of  his  material  was  influ¬ 
enced  by  his  own  mind  and  its  stores  of  reading,  though  his  diary 
records  the  experiences  in  a  form  more  free  from  interpretation. 
The  impressiveness  of  his  work  affected  Immanuel  Kant  in  his 
early  life  sufficiently  to  induce  him  to  write  his  “  Dreams  of  a 
Ghost  Seer”  {“  Traiime  eines  Geistessehers”),  in  which  he 
weighed  the  speculative  arguments  for  and  against  spirit  communi¬ 
cation,  leaving  the  question  unsettled.  Some  writers  see  in  this 
work  an  ironical  treatment  of  the  problem ;  but  there  are  too  many 
statements  seriously  recognizing  the  possible  validity  of  spiritistic 
claims  to  justify  such  a  judgment  except  to  men  who  are  wholly 
unfamiliar  with  the  evidence  for  the  subnormal.  Kant,  however, 
ceased  to  have  interest  in  the  subject,  though  it  was  later  revived, 
as  the  works  of  Hegel  and  Schopenhauer  show.  Both  of  these 
philosophers  became  convinced  of  the  existence  of  the  phenomena; 
but  their  attitude  toward  this  subject  is  disregarded  in  most  dis¬ 
cussions  of  their  philosophic  systems. 

Scientific  materialism  arose  as  a  consequence  of  the  renaissance 
of  science  which  began  with  Copernicus.  Men  had  a  new  interest 
in  nature  and  the  physical  universe.  They  had  long  been  fed  on 
tradition  and  speculative  metaphysics,  and  the  reactions,  as  shown, 
both  in  skepticism  and  the  revival  of  materialistic  tendencies,  is 
apparent  in  the  agnosticism  of  Kant  and  in  all  subsequent  philoso¬ 
phy.  Swedenborg  made  an  attempt  to  counteract  this  materialistic 
trend  of  things,  though  he,  perhaps,  did  not  feel  the  impulse  of  the 
materialistic  movement  so  strongly  as  did  many  others  who  had 
followed  in  the  wake  of  Cartesian  thought.  Whether  they  felt 
this  trend  or  not,  however,  believers  in  immortality  were  supplied 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM 


25 

by  the  method  of  Swedenborg  with  scientific  evidence.  This 
method  was  an  appeal  to  facts  and  to  communication  with  the  dead 
for  evidence  of  another  life,  and  it  even  went  so  far  as  to  map  out 
that  life.  Whether  Swedenborg  adequately  met  the  demands  of 
scientific  method  is  another  matter.  There  is  no  doubt  that  too 
much  was  made  to  depend  on  his  mere  probity  and  his  authority  as  a 
scientific  man  and  that  his  system  soon  developed  into  the  same  kind 
of  dogmatism  as  that  of  Christian  theology.  The  experiment  of 
continued  communication  with  the  dead  was  not  kept  up,  except 
as  it  was  practised  by  people  who  had  abandoned  the  orthodoxies 
of  both  philosophy  and  religion.  Despite  its  defects,  however,  the 
method  of  Swedenborg  represents  the  right  conception  of  the 
problem.  Materialism  and  skepticism  acknowledged  nothing  but 
normal  experience  for  regulating  the  beliefs  of  mankind ;  and  that 
experience  does  not  attest  survival.  It  may  stimulate  hope  and 
faith,  but  these  sources  of  belief  give  no  such  assurance  as  the 
scientific  mind  requires.  With  the  new  criterion  of  truth  set  up  by 
scientific  investigation,  came  an  increased  demand  for  better  evi¬ 
dence  for  survival  than  natural  science  on  the  one  hand  and  religion 
on  the  other  were  capable  of  supplying.  Swedenborg  anticipated 
the  method  by  which  this  evidence  can  be  obtained ;  but  his  fol¬ 
lowers,  like  Christian  theologians,  settled  down  on  the  authority 
of  their  master  and  regarded  spiritual  revelation  as  closed.  Sci¬ 
entific  experiment  and  investigation  had  to  wait  another  century  for 
recognition,  except  as  the  problem  was  kept  alive  by  sporadic 
instances  of  mediumship  and  other  phenomena  outside  the  limits 
of  science,  philosophy,  theology  and  even  Swedenborgianism. 
These  instances  found  favor  mostly  among  the  common  people,  but 
they  were  ridiculed  by  the  respectable  adherents  of  other  beliefs. 
Events  may  have  justified  this  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the 
educated ;  at  any  rate  these  occurrences  occasioned  no  such  interest 
as  did  the  movement  initiated  by  the  Fox  sisters. 

The  interest  in  spiritualism  after  the  time  of  Swedenborg  was 
kept  alive  by  the  performances  of  Mesmer  and  by  the  investigators 
who  followed  him.  Among  German  authorities  of  note  who  inves¬ 
tigated  the  subject,  Jung  Stilling,  a  man  of  university  education 
and  standing,  is  the  most  important.  Contemporary  with  him  were 


26  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


Reiser,  Wienholt,  Fischer,  Kluge,  and  Baron  von  Reichenbach; 
the  last,  a  scientific  man  of  some  attainments,  experimented  and 
wrote  much  upon  the  subject.  We  cannot  go  into  any  notice  of 
his  work,  and  refer  to  it  only  to  indicate  that  the  phenomena  would 
not  have  received  so  much  attention,  had  they  been  merely  sporadic. 
This  attention  was  centered  on  mesmerism  or  animal  magnetism, 
now  called  hypnotism,  an  artificial  method  of  inducing  trance, 
which  often  resulted  in  supernormal  manifestations  and  medium- 
istic  phenomena.  Among  the  most  noted  of  the  somnambules  of 
the  period  was  Frederika  Hauffe,  called,  from  her  birthplace,  the 
Seer  of  Prevorst.  The  poet  and  physician  Kerner  published  a  life 
of  her  after  her  death,  which  was  prior  to  1829.  Kerner  had  also 
another  case  of  which  he  published  some  account;  but  there  is  no 
space  to  discuss  these  cases.  They  illustrate  the  usual  phenomena, 
however  explained,  and  were  no  doubt  accompanied  by  hysteria,  the 
usual  concomitant  of  such  manifestations,  but  they  are  of  interest 
as  demonstrating  that  the  modern  movement  began  outside  of 
America,  and  long  before  1848. 

Swedenborg  aroused  some  interest  in  France,  but  he  had  no  sec¬ 
tarian  following  there  of  any  special  note.  It  was  Mesmer  who 
created  the  interest  manifested  there.  His  performances  in  Paris 
soon  after  he  moved  there  in  1878  excited  great  interest,  and  re¬ 
sulted,  as  did  somnambulism  in  Germany,  in  the  revival  of  super¬ 
normal  phenomena  transcending  hypnosis.  Deleuze  was  the  chief 
representative  of  the  movement  in  this  period,  but  he  suspended 
his  judgment  on  spiritistic  phenomena.  He  was  interested  in  the 
naturalistic  interpretation  of  somnambulism  and  clairvoyance, 
though  conceding  that  there  were  facts  which  required  further  in¬ 
vestigation.  He  had  some  controversy  on  the  subject  with  one 
Billot,  who  defended  the  spiritistic  theory.  Cahagnet  aroused 
some  interest,  but,  as  he  had  no  scientific  training,  his  work  was 
without  authority;  he  seemed  to  have  experimented  much  in  vari¬ 
ous  directions  and  accepted  the  spiritistic  theory.  The  materialistic 
tendencies  of  France,  however,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Hugue¬ 
nots  by  Louis  XIV,  created  an  atmosphere  of  skepticism  about 
everything  supernatural  or  savoring  of  spirits,  so  that  the  first  incli¬ 
nation  of  all  inquirers  was  toward  what  they  were  pleased  to  call 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM 


27 

“  naturalistic”  explanations.  Hence  spiritualism  made  little  or  no 
progress  until  long  after  1848. 

In  England  mesmerism  aroused  some  interest.  Elliotson  and 
Esdaille  successfully  practised  it  and  also  met  with  supernormal 
experiences.  Another  student  of  mesmerism  was  Braid,  but  he 
encountered  few,  if  any,  supernormal  phenomena.  On  the  whole, 
spiritualism,  at  least  in  so  far  as  public  and  literary  notice  are  con¬ 
cerned,  made  little  headway  in  England  until  after  the  episode  of 
the  Fox  sisters. 

Though  the  phenomena  are  very  old,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
foregoing  account,  it  was  the  rappings  of  the  Fox  sisters  that  cre¬ 
ated  a  world-wide  interest  in  the  facts.  The  manifestations  were 
accompanied  by  no  mesmeric  nor  hypnotic  phenomena.  America 
knew  and  cared  little  about  mesmerism  in  the  scientific  sense.  It 
was  chiefly  occupied  in  the  organization  of  a  new  social  and  political 
system,  and  in  the  accumulation  of  wealth.  Spiritual  interests  were 
confined  largely  to  the  orthodox  in  religion.  Consequently,  sci¬ 
entific  and  skeptical  people  were  not  fired  with  interest  in  the  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  soul.  The  movement  broke  out  in  a  simple  agri¬ 
cultural  community,  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  philosophic  and 
scientific  problems  of  Europe.  It  boldly  proclaimed  itself  as  spir¬ 
itualism —  a  word  whose  history  is  honorable,  but  whose  meaning 
has  degenerated  into  a  term  of  contempt  —  with  a  creed  based  on 
certain  physical  phenomena  said  to  have  originated  in  the  presence 
of  the  Fox  children. 

These  phenomena  began  in  Hydesville,  New  York.  The  his¬ 
tory  of  the  occurrences  is  well  told  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Underhill, 
a  sister  of  the  two  chief  mediums  concerned.  Her  account  is  a  good 
one  and  there  is  no  reason  to  question  it,  though  we  may  not  fully 
share  her  enthusiastic  interest  in  the  events.  She,  with  many 
others,  thought  that  they  betokened  the  rise  of  a  new  religion,  un¬ 
aware  that  they  only  repeated  phenomena  associated  with  the  early 
history  of  Christianity.  The  enthusiasm  was  natural;  for  these 
people  felt  that  they  had  found  proof,  to  take  the  place  of  the  uncer¬ 
tainties  of  faith.  I  am  convinced  that  the  abuse  which  has  been 
heaped  upon  the  movement  has  obscured  the  value  of  some  of  the 
phenomena  —  value  not  necessarily  as  supernormal  occurrences,  but 


28  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


as  cases  of  interest  to  abnormal  psychology.  It  was  the  confession 
of  Margaret  Fox  that  deprived  the  movement  of  both  its  scientific 
and  its  religious  interest.  She  confessed  to  making  the  raps  with 
her  toe  joints.  It  mattered  not  that  there  were  other  and  mental 
phenomena  which  were  well-attested,  and  that  there  was  testimony 
that  raps  had  occurred  in  localities  where  action  of  the  toe  joints 
could  not  be  effective.  The  confession  of  fraud  sufficed  to  rob  the 
case  forever  of  scientific  interest. 

Other  forces  also  contributed  to  nullify  the  importance  of  the 
phenomena.  A  religion  dependent  on  raps  and  on  proved  defects 
in  moral  character  was  not  likely  long  to  survive.  It  would  have 
been  wiser  to  leave  the  significance  of  the  facts  to  science  and  to 
allow  religion  to  obtain  its  credentials  from  ethical  and  spiritual 
ideals  of  another  type.  But  the  consolation  obtained-  from  alleged 
proof  where  only  faith  had  previously  existed-  was  too  much  for 
uneducated  people  to  withstand,  and  their  emotional  reaction  dis¬ 
colored  the  facts.  The  confession  of  fraud  left  no  room  for  apol¬ 
ogies;  no  intelligent  person  could  afterwards  feel  or  express  an 
interest  in  the  phenomena.  The  spiritualists  who  endeavored  to 
defend  their  proteges  only  weakened  their  cause  and  brought  it  into 
deserved  contempt.  There  can  be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the 
present  writer  that  the  phenomena  of  the  Fox  sisters  never  received 
their  deserved  investigation ;  but  the  spiritualists  did  not  take  a 
course  that  would  invite  the  interest  of  intelligent  people.  They 
succeeded  only  in  giving  the  word  spiritualism  a  meaning  that  has 
made  it  almost  impossible  to  use  it  in  a  favorable  sense  among 
respectable  people. 

It  is  worth  remarking,  however,  that  all  important  movements 
of  the  kind  have  originated  among  common  people.  The  intellectu¬ 
als  have  never  originated  an  important  ethical  or  spiritual  reform. 
They  have  supported  art  and  refinement,  but  have  never  founded 
a  religion  which  rules  over  the  destinies  of  civilization.  Such  a 
religion  has  always  originated  among  the  common  people,  who 
have  no  prejudices  against  nature  nor  in  favor  of  aesthetics  as  the 
first  condition  of  truth  or  virtue.  This  is  the  excuse  for  the  interest 
shown  in  the  Fox  phenomena.  They  were  intelligible  to  common 
understandings,  though  they  did  not  conform  to  the  more  refined 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM 


29 

conceptions  of  educated  people.  It  is  true  that  even  the  actuality 
of  the  raps  and  physical  phenomena  reported  in  the  case  have  no 
bearing  on  the  explanation  that  aroused  enthusiasm  and  gave  con¬ 
solation.  But  physical  phenomena,  like  the  alleged  miracles  of 
Christ,  have  always  attracted  the  untutored  mind ;  one  can  therefore 
understand  the  interest  excited  by  the  movement  even  when  one 
does  not  share  it.  The  spiritualists  have  never  made  a  sustained 
effort  to  attract  the  attention  of  scientific  men  to  their  phenomena 
or  their  religion.  Their  performances  are  little  better  than  vaude¬ 
ville  and  their  religion,  as  an  organized  affair,  little  better  than  a 
cloak  to  protect  them  against  the  invasions  of  the  police.  Recent 
developments  have  somewhat  modified  this  situation,  but  many 
followers  are  interested  in  neither  ethics  nor  religion,  but  only  in 
a  show.  Christ  deplored  the  fact  that  his  followers  cared  more 
for  his  miracles  than  for  his  ethical  teachings;  and  mankind  have 
ever  since  justified  this  rebuke.  If  spiritualism  had  organized 
ethics  and  practical  life  and  laid  less  stress  on  its  phenomena,  it 
might  long  ago  have  won  the  world’s  respect.  All  religions  are 
judged  by  their  external  appearances;  if  they  are  vulgar  in  their 
appearances  and  have  no  redeeming  features  in  ethical  and  spir¬ 
itual  life,  they  will  not  attract  the  intellectuals. 

But  the  spiritualist  movement  was  restored  to  a  measure  of  re¬ 
spectability  by  Judge  Edmunds  and  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  Judge 
Edmunds  was  a  lawyer  of  sufficient  ability  to  become  one  of  the 
judges  in  the  supreme  court  of  New  York  State.  His  first  psychic 
experiences  came  through  his  own  daughter;  they  were  private  and 
never  exploited  as  were  those  of  the  Fox  sisters.  His  two  volumes 
have  great  interest  for  psychology,  whatever  explanation  we  give  to 
his  data;  but  he  made  the  mistake  of  laying  little  or  no  stress  on 
supernormal  phenomena,  giving  the  prominence  to  alleged  com¬ 
munications  from  Francis  Bacon  and  Emmanuel  Swedenborg.  He 
offered  no  proof  that  these  philosophic  and  other  revelations  came 
from  the  source  ascribed  to  them.  The  same  criticism  holds  true 
of  the  work  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  Both  his  defenders  and 
his  opponents  misjudged  the  facts:  his  de-fenders  exaggerated 
Davis’s  ignorance  and  his  critics  exaggerated  his  knowledge.  His 
work  has  at  least  great  psychological  interest,  but  his  investigation 


30  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

of  facts  never  pursued  a  method  that  would  lead  to  convincing 
interpretations. 

The  author  of  the  “  Apocatastasis,”  mentioned  above/  took  the 
right  view  of  the  facts.  He  thought  it  probable  that  the  phenomena 
were  spiritistic,  but  he  insisted  that  this  conclusion  was  not  a  basis 
for  accepting  the  teachings  which  the  communications  contained. 
He  drew  the  important  distinction  between  the  origin  and  the  valid¬ 
ity  of  the  contents  of  the  communications.  It  is  one  thing  to  prove 
that  a  statement  comes  from  a  spirit,  but  it  is  another  and  very 
different  thing  to  prove  that  it  is  true  and  valid.  This  distinction 
is  constantly  forgotten.  A  man  may  exhibit  supernormal  faculties, 
but  these  do  not  give  him  insight  into  reality.  Moreover,  he  may 
get  messages  from  spirits;  but  the  ability  of  a  spirit  to  send  a  mes¬ 
sage  does  not  guarantee  veracity  of  the  sender,  any  more  than  the 
conversation  of  your  neighbor  over  a  telephone  assures  you  of  the 
correctness  of  his  statements.  The  value  of  a  statement  is  not 
determined  by  its  source.  It  was  the  mistake  of  the  admirers  of 
Judge  Edmunds  and  Andrew  Jackson  Davis — a  mistake  shared  by 
these  men  themselves — to  assume  that  the  evidence  that  spirits  were 
back  of  the  phenomena  furnished  also  a  reason  for  belief  in  the  con¬ 
tents  of  the  messages.  Ignorance,  impersonation,  confusion  of 
messages,  as  well  as  the  coloring  given  by  the  medium,  offer  objec¬ 
tions  to  the  passive  acceptance  of  messages  as  true.  These  facts 
should  have  been  realized  by  all  who  were  connected  with  the  cases. 
It  was  perhaps  pardonable  that  few  or  none  saw  the  difficulties 
involved,  because  Christian  thought,  in  its  whole  history,  had  been 
based  on  vindication  of  the  source  of  teaching  as  a  sufficient  cri¬ 
terion  of  its  validity.  It  required  later  reflection  on  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  evolution  to  discover  that  the  value  of  facts  is  established 
by  function,  not  origin. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  in  detail  the  history  of  modern 
spiritualism  through  all  its  vicissitudes,  but  this  would  require  more 
than  one  volume.  I  have  devoted  attention  to  it  merely  to  empha¬ 
size  the  fact  that  its  origin  is  not  recent,  but  that  its  phenomena  are 
as  old  as  the  human  race.  Only  the  scientific  investigation  of  it 
is  modern.  This  investigation  would  not  have  been  undertaken, 

1  “  Proceedings  ”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  io6. 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM  31 

had  not  Qiristianity,  like  paganism,  begun  to  show  signs  of  decay, 
and  had  not  the  triumphs  of  physical  science  weakened  the  faith  of 
mankind  and  developed  an  exclusive  interest  in  physical  life. 
Whatever  faults  the  spiritual  customs  of  Christianity  had,  they 
always  kept  alive  the  serious  view  of  nature  and  human  life,  and 
saved  civilization  from  debauchery  in  the  period  following  the 
break  up  of  paganism.  That  was  achievement  enough;  but  had  it 
adjusted  itself  to  the  advances  of  science,  it  might  have  held  the 
reins  of  power  still  longer. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH 

PSYCHIC  phenomena  finally  excited  such  a  world-wide  inter¬ 
est  that  they  compelled  the  attention  of  scientific  men.  The 
phenomena  might  possibly  have  remained  unnoticed  much 
longer,  had  it  not  been  for  their  occurrence  in  respectable  families, 
sometimes  to  men  and  women  of  intelligence  and  training.  But 
interest  even  among  intelligent  people  continued  for  some  time 
without  being  strong  enough  to  organize  any  effort  to  apply  sci¬ 
entific  methods  to  an  investigation  of  the  facts.  At  last,  however, 
a  few  men  concluded  that  it  was  the  scandal  of  science  that  the 
allegations  of  centuries  had  not  been  taken  up  and  investigated. 
The  persistence  of  the  phenomena,  and  of  the  claims  for  the  super¬ 
normal,  was  a  perpetual  challenge  to  science ;  at  last  this  challenge 
was  accepted. 

John  Addington  Symonds  states  in  his  letters,  with  a  half-sneer 
at  the  folly  of  it,  that  Professor  Sidgwick  of  Cambridge  Univer¬ 
sity  was  investigating  mediums  as  early  as  1867  with  the  hope  of 
finding  evidence  of  survival  after  death.  This  date  was  fifteen 
years  before  the  organization  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Re¬ 
search. 

The  experiences  of  the  Reverend  W.  Stainton  Moses  were  among 
the  chief  incentives  to  the  formation  of  the  society.  These  ex¬ 
periences  were  confirmed  by  other  sporadic,  remarkable  incidents 
among  intelligent  people,  such  as  Lord  Brougham,  Cotter  Mor- 
ison,  Andrew  Lang,  and  Sir  William  Crookes.  The  Reverend 
Stainton  Moses  had  been  educated  at  Oxford  University  and 
was  for  a  long  time  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England;  but 
during  his  intercourse  with  some  skeptical  members  of  his  own 
congregation  he  was  persuaded  by  them  to  investigate  spiritualism. 
He  found  nothing  at  first ;  but  he  finally  developed  automatic  writ¬ 
ing  himself,  and  became  convinced  by  it  that  the  claims  of  the 

32 


THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH  33 

spiritualist  were  correct.  His  unquestioned  integrity  left  intelli¬ 
gent  people  no  choice  but  to  investigate  the  matter.  He  was  per¬ 
sonally  known  to  Professor  Sidgwick,  Mr.  Myers,  Edmund  Gur¬ 
ney,  and  others  of  the  same  standing.  With  his  case  and  others 
challenging  science,  the  men  just  named  organized,  in  1882,  the 
English  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  and  obtained  the  coopera- 
-tion  of  other  prominent  men.  Prof,  (now  Sir)  William  F.  Barrett, 
however,  was  probably  the  chief  instigator  in  the  matter.  He  had 
independently  and  individually  been  investigating  the  phenomena, 
especially  those  of  mind-reading,  or  telepathy,  for  years,  and  had 
brought  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  which  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it.  He  continued  to  urge  the  subject  among  scientific  men, 
however,  until  he  saw  the  fruit  of  his  interest  and  work  in  the 
organization  of  the  Society.  He  was  himself  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents  in  the  organization,  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick  being 
the  president.  Professor  Balfour  Stewart  was  also  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents.  With  them  were  associated  Arthur  James  Balfour, 
M.  P.,  Richard  Hutton,  and  the  Honorable  Roden  Noel.  The 
council  of  the  Society  was  composed  of  Frederick  W.  H.  Myers, 
Edmund  Gurney,  Frank  Podmore,  Charles  C.  Massey,  and  others 
not  so  well-known  in  America.  These  names  guaranteed  a  scien¬ 
tific  treatment  of  the  subject. 

Before  this  time  the  Philosophic  Society  had  investigated  the 
phenomena  and  published  a  favorable  report  on  them ;  but  its  report 
had  not  been  received  by  the  scientific  world  with  the  respect  it 
deserved.  The  present  Society,  however,  had  more  than  a  tem¬ 
porary  interest  in  the  subject  and  was  determined  to  pursue  the 
investigation  until  some  light  was  thrown  upon  the  phenomena. 
Sir  William  F.  Barrett  read  the  first  paper  on  Thought  Reading  at 
the  first  meeting  of  the  Society,  and  Professor  Sidgwick  read  his 
presidential  address.  A  draft  of  the  purposes  of  the  Society  was 
published  as  a  circular;  the  objects  of  study  included  phenomena 
purporting  to  represent  the  influence  of  “  one  mind  on  another 
apart  from  any  generally  recognized  mode  of  perception”  (after¬ 
ward  called  telepathy),  hypnotism,  clairvoyance,  the  experiments 
of  Reichenbach,  apparitions,  haunted  houses,  the  physical  phe- 


34  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

nomena  of  spiritualism,  and  the  collection  of  existing  materials 
bearing  on  the  history  of  these  subjects.  This  was  an  extensive 
program,  but  it  has  been  carried  on  now  for  more  than  thirty-five 
years.  The  publications  of  the  Society  have  consisted  of  a  Journal 
issued  monthly  and  a  volume  of  “  Proceedings  ”  issued  annually, 
often  in  parts  distributed  through  the  year. 

In  1884,  two  years  after  the  organization  of  the  English  Society, 
an  American  Society  was  formed,  with  Mr.  N.  D.  C.  Hodges  as 
secretary.  Professor  Simon  Newcomb  was  its  first  president.  Its 
vice-presidents  were  Professor,  now  President,  G.  Stanley  Hall  of 
Clark  University,  Professor  George  S.  Fullerton  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  Professor  Edward  C.  Pickering  of  the  Harvard 
College  Observatory,  Dr.  Henry  P.  Bowditch  of  the  Harvard  Med¬ 
ical  School,  and  Dr.  Charles  S.  Minot  of  the  Harvard  Medical 
School. 

At  the  sixth  meeting  of  the  Society,  on  January  ii,  1887,  Dr. 
Richard  Hodgson  of  London,  England,  was  elected  secretary.  The 
Society  had  on  its  membership  list  a  large  number  of  scientific  men. 
It  issued  annual  reports  which,  in  the  course  of  five  years,  made 
a  volume.  But  by  this  time  membership  fell  off  and  interest 
declined,  perhaps  because  the  public  did  not  find  the  expected  prog¬ 
ress  made.  The  American  Society  was  therefore  abandoned  and 
reorganized  as  an  American  branch  of  the  English  Society.  Dr. 
Richard  Hodgson  was  continued  as  its  Secretary  and  remained 
in  that  office  until  his  death  in  1905. 

A  year  before  the  death  of  Dr.  Hodgson,  the  present  author, 
having  resigned  his  position  in  Columbia  University  to  recover  his 
health,  resolved  to  organize  an  independent  American  Society, 
with  the  object  of  finally  merging  the  American  branch  with  it 
when  the  financial  support  of  the  work  justified  it.  It  was  deter¬ 
mined  not  to  compete  in  any  way  with  either  the  English  Society 
or  its  American  branch.  The  plan  was  to  make  Dr.  Hodgson  its 
secretary,  as  he  had  expressed  his  willingness  to  merge  the  branch 
with  the  new  American  Society.  To  effect  this  merger,  effort  was 
concentrated  on  raising  the  sum  of  $25,000  as  a  fund  to  guarantee 
preliminary  organization.  Just  as  this  money  was  secured.  Dr. 
Hodgson  died.  The  present  author  refused  to  organize  the  new 


THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH  35 

society  on  his  own  responsibility  alone,  conditioning  it  on  either 
the  cooperation  of  the  English  body  or  the  dissolution  of  the 
American  branch.  The  latter  alternative  was  adopted  by  the  Eng¬ 
lish  Society  and  the  new  American  Society  was  organized  with  Dr. 
James  H.  Hyslop  as  its  Secretary.  This  was  in  May,  1906.  Its 
publications  did  not  begin  until  January,  1907. 

There  are  organizations  of  some  sort  in  both  France  and  Italy 
under  the  auspices  of  scientific  men,  but  their  constitutions  are 
not  known  to  the  present  author.  The  Psychological  Institute  in 
Paris  was  founded  to  include  psychical  research  in  its  field  of 
inquiry. 

These  societies  are  intended  to  give  scientific  character  and  re¬ 
spectability  to  the  investigation  of  unusual  phenomena  bearing  on 
the  problems  of  mind  and  its  survival  of  bodily  death.  The  preju¬ 
dice  against  spiritualism  was  so  strong  at  the  outset  that  its  objects 
had  either  to  be  disguised  or  ignored.  Telepathy,  dousing,  hyp¬ 
notism  and  various  phenomena  which  present  no  superficial  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  intervention  of  discarnate  spirits  received  the  first  at¬ 
tention.  After  the  supernormal  in  some  form  had  been  proved, 
the  credentials  of  spiritualism  came  under  notice.  In  the  course  of 
the  work,  most  of  the  leading  members  who  have  conducted  per¬ 
sonal  investigations  have  become  convinced  that  man  survives 
bodily  death;  but  it  has  been  regarded  as  not  always  good  policy 
to  avow  the  conviction  with  any  missionary  zeal.  Hence  convic¬ 
tion  on  the  point  appears  to  the  public  to  be  less  strong  than  it 
actually  is.  There  are  enough  questions  still  unanswered  to  sug¬ 
gest  caution  on  the  subject,  especially  on  aspects  of  it  as  yet  wholly 
uninvestigated.  But  the  existence  of  supernormal  phenomena  has 
been  so  well  established  by  the  work  of  the  several  groups  of  inves¬ 
tigators  that  men  are  fast  coming  to  acknowledge  that  the  subject 
can  no  longer  be  evaded  or  ridiculed  as  it  was  at  the  outset.  Psychic 
research  may  now  be  regarded  as  having  proved  its  right  to  a  place 
among  the  investigations  of  science. 

As  its  first  work,  the  Society  undertook  experiments  on  telepathy 
or  thought  transference  with  some  success.  But  some  doubt  was 
ultimately  cast  on  two  series  of  the  experiments,  those  with  the 
McCreery  sisters  and  those  between  a  Mr.  Blackburn  and  a  Mr. 


36  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Smith.  The  McCreery  sisters  confessed  that  they  had  used  signals 
in  certain  experiments,  a  circumstance  which  gave  the  skeptic  op¬ 
portunity  to  decry  the  whole  work.  But  the  experimenters  soon 
showed  that  they  had  attached  no  value  to  any  experiments  save 
those  in  which  signalling  was  impossible.  The  girls  insisted  also 
that  they  had  not  used  a  code  in  those  instances  which  had  seemed 
most  impressive.  In  the  other  case,  as  Mr.  Blackburn  was  proved  to 
be  a  liar  or  at  least  wholly  untrustworthy  as-  a  witness,  even  in  his 
own  confession  of  fraud,  his  testimony  even  in  the  latter  case  could 
not  be  accepted  at  its  face  value.  There  were  additional  and  bet¬ 
ter  results  on  which  to  base  the  claims  of  telepathy;  something  of 
the  kind  seems  certainly  to  be  a  tenable  hypothesis.  It  is  true  that 
since  its  origin,  the  meaning  of  the  term  has  been  enlarged  to  cover 
many  and  various  processes;  consequently  all  the  claims  made  re¬ 
garding  it  have  been  viewed  with  suspicion. 

Telepathy,  in  its  original  meaning,  was  limited  to  the  transfer¬ 
ence  of  present  states  of  consciousness;  but,  for  the  sake  of  com¬ 
batting  the  evidence  for  the  existence  of  discarnate  spirits,  the 
definition  was  extended  to  include  subconscious  acquisition  of  mem¬ 
ories  from  others,  by  a  selective  process  on  the  part  of  the  person 
who  received  the  thoughts  thus  transmitted.  No  scientific  evi¬ 
dence  for  this  theory  has  been  advanced,  though  there  are  coinci¬ 
dences  which  might  well  suggest  it. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  place  for  discussing  in  detail  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  telepathy.  Strictly  speaking,  the  term  denotes  the  trans¬ 
mission  of  thought  from  one  mind  to  another  independently  of  the 
recognized  channels  of  sense,  or,  as  the  present  writer  prefers  to 
define  it,  in  order  not  to  suggest  any  known  process,  telepathy  is  a 
coincidence  between  the  thoughts  of  two  minds,  which  cannot  be 
explained  by  chance  or  normal  sense-perception.  The  facts  which 
it  includes  are  not  evidence  of  the  existence  of  discarnate  spirits. 
This  definition  leaves  undetermined  the  nature  of  the  process  and 
the  directness  of  transmission. 

Not  all  of  these  qualifications  were  made  in  the  first  stages  of 
the  investigation;  but  they  were  usually  implied.  It  was  the  object 
of  the  Society  to  ascertain  whether  there  were  any  supernormal 
phenomena  that  would  not  excite  the  antagonism  which  spiritual- 


THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH  37 

ists  always  evoked  by  their  claims.  It  was  apparent  that  the  proof 
of  anything  like  telepathy  would  involve  the  possibility  of  com¬ 
munications  with  the  dead,  given  the  actual  survival  of  personal 
consciousness.  This  method  of  approach  made  the  hypothesis  ap¬ 
pear  less  objectionable  to  the  scientific  skeptic. 

In  the  course  of  several  years  of  investigation,  two  types  of 
phenomena,  with  perhaps  a  third,  made  something  like  telepathy 
seem  plausible.  These  were  spontaneous  coincidences  between  two 
persons’  thoughts  and  experimental  coincidences,  in  which  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  the  result  could  be  regulated  and  the  phenomena  re¬ 
peated  more  or  less  at  will.  The  third  type  consisted  of  appari¬ 
tions;  since  these  naturally  suggested  the  agency  of  spirits,  believers 
in  telepathy  were  interested  in  attempting  to  prove  the  adequacy  of 
that  process  as  an  explanation. 

I  shall  give  a  few  illustrations  of  the  phenomena.  I  adduce 
them,  not  as  a  scientific  proof  of  thought  transference,  but  only  as 
illustrations  of  the  kind  of  cases  which  were  for  many  years  col¬ 
lected,  and  which,  whatever  the  explanation,  very  frequently  occur. 

In  “  Phantasms  of  the  Living,”  the  authors  record  the  follow¬ 
ing  incident.  It  is  partly  experimental  and  partly  spontaneous. 
A  gentleman  willed  that  a  lady  who  lived  at  some  distance  from  him 
should  leave  the  part  of  that  house  in  which  she  was  at  the  time, 
should  go  to  her  bedroom,  and  should  remove  a  portrait  from  her 
dressing-table.  When  the  gentleman  next  saw  her,  she  told  him 
that,  at  the  time  in  question,  she  had  felt  strongly  impelled  to  go 
up  to  her  room  and  remove  something  from  her  dressing-table. 
She  did  remove  an  article,  though  it  was  not  the  portrait.  In  this 
case,  the  man’s  act  was  experimental ;  the  lady’s  act,  since  she  did 
not  know  that  the  experiment  was  being  made,  was  spontaneous. 

The  following,  in  the  form  of  a  dream  by  the  percipient,  is  spom 
taneous  on  both  sides  : 

“  I  dreamt  I  was  looking  out  of  a  window,  when  I  saw  father 
driving  a  Spids  sledge,  followed  in  another  by  my  brother.  They 
had  to  pass  a  cross-roads,  on  which  another  traveller  was  driving 
very  fast,  also  in  a*  sledge  with  one  horse.  Father  seemed  to  drive 
on  without  observing  the  other  fellow,  who  would  without  fail 
have  driven  over  father  if  he  had  not  made  his  horse  rear,  so  that 


38  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

I  saw  my  father  drive  under  the  hoofs  of  the  horse.  Every  mo¬ 
ment  I  expected  the  horse  to  fall  down  and  crush  him.  I  called 
out  ‘  Father!  Father!  ’  and  woke  in  great  fright.  The  next  morn¬ 
ing  my  father  and  brother  returned.  I  said  to  him,  ‘  I  am  so  glad 
to  see  you  arrive  quite  safely,  as  I  had  such  a  dreadful  dream  about 
you  last  night.’  My  brother  said,  ‘  You  could  not  have  been  in 
greater  fright  about  him  than  I  was,’  and  then  related  to  me  what 
had  happened,  which  tallied  exactly  with  my  dream.  My  brother 
in  his  fright,  when  he  saw  the  feet  of  the  horse  over  father’s  head, 
called  out,  ‘  Oh,  father,  father!  ’  ” 

Thousands  of  such  coincidences  have  occurred,  many  of  them 
under  conditions  and  with  confirmation  that  seem  to  prove  the 
reality  of  telepathy.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  are  due  to 
chance. 

But  I  am  not  concerned  to  prove  anything  by  these  incidents, 
which  are  only  illustrations  of  what,  if  performed  under  proper 
conditions,  would  be  regarded  as  proof  of  the  supernormal  transfer 
of  mental  states  or  pictures.  The  Society  carried  on  experiments 
for  a  long  time  and  in  large  numbers,  besides  recording  as  evidence 
spontaneous  incidents  as  good  as  or  better  than  that  quoted.  It  felt 
justified  in  maintaining,  despite  the  objections  of  a  critical  scien¬ 
tific  world,  that  the  existence  of  telepathy  has  been  proved. 

Of  course,  part  of  the  difficulty  in  carrying  conviction  arose  from 
the  lack  of  an  exact  definition  of  telepathy  or  thought  transference. 
If  the  Society  had  held  to  a  negative  conception  of  the  term,  assum¬ 
ing  neither  its  value  as  an  explanation  nor  the  directness  of  transfer 
between  the  two.  minds,  it  might  have  aroused  less  criticism.  But  it 
and  the  public  used  the  term  as  if  it  explained  certain  occurrences, 
and  as  if  it  necessarily  implied  direct  transmission.  We  have  no 
evidence  to  justify  these  conclusions;  we  proved  only  the  existence 
of  certain  coincidences  not  due  to  chance  nor  to  normal  sense-per¬ 
ception,  and  not  evidence  of  the  discarnate.  The  controversy  with 
the  spiritualists,  however,  gave  the  term  in  relation  to  spiritistic 
theories  a  meaning  that  it  should  never  have  had. 

Two  other  types  of  occurrence,  however,  made  it  necessary  to 
ask  whether  spiritual  beings  exist :  namely,  apparitions  and  medium- 
istic  phenomena.  The  Society  then  began  to  investigate  phantasms 


THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH  39 

or  apparitions;  the  two  volumes  published  on  that  subject,  together 
with  the  volume  entitled  “  A  Census  of  Hallucinations,”  ^  an¬ 
nounced  the  unanimous  conclusion  of  the  committee  that  these  ap¬ 
paritions  were  not  due  to  chance.  The  committee  regarded  this 
conclusion  as  proved,  regardless  of  the  explanation,  which  many  as¬ 
sumed  to  be  telepathy.  As  the  census  was  limited  to  phantasms  of 
the  living  or  of  persons  at  the  moment  of  death,  the  hypothesis  had 
its  plausibility.  Apparitions  of  the  dead  were  not  considered  in  this 
report. 

Mediumistic  phenomena  strengthened  the  case  of  the  spiritualists. 
Soon  after  the  announcement  of  the  conclusions  regarding  telep¬ 
athy  and  apparitions,  the  Society  discovered  Mrs.  Piper,  through 
Professor  William  James,  who  had  reported  on  her  phenomena  as 
early  as  in  1885.  In  1887,  F)r.  Richard  Hodgson  became  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  case;  in  the  course  of  eighteen  years  of  work 
with  Mrs.  Piper  he,  together  with  some  other  members  of  the  So¬ 
ciety,  became  convinced  of  the  spiritistic  theory.  After  Mrs. 
Piper,  Mrs.  Verrall,  Mrs.  Holland  and  others  exhibited  the  same 
type  of  phenomena.  The  American  Society  has  investigated  Mrs. 
Smead,  Mrs.  Quentin,  Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  a  few  others.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  whatever  the  explanation,  that  supernormal  infor¬ 
mation  has  been'  obtained  through  them. 

In  the  meantime  other  fields  of  inquiry  were  opened.  The  orig¬ 
inal  Society  unsuccessfully  tried  to  repeat  the  experiments  of  Reich- 
enbach.  Sir  William  Barrett  spent  much  time  in  investigating 
dousing,  and  issued  two  reports,  in  which  he  announced  the  con¬ 
clusion  that  the  finding  of  water  by  the  divining-rod  is  possible. 
Hypnotic  phenomena  were  to  some  extent  investigated,  particu¬ 
larly  with  a  view  to  inducing  conditions  for  proving  telepathy; 
some  remarkable  experiments  were  performed  by  Edmund  Gurney. 
In  the  course  of  thirty  years  of  work,  the  Society  collected  an  im¬ 
mense  amount  of  data,  which  leaves  the  scientist  no  excuse  for 
ignoring  the  immemorial  claims  of  a  supernormal  element  in  human 
experience. 

The  American  Society  has  been  handicapped  in  its  work  by  the 
need  of  funds  and  a  laboratory  for  scientific  work,  and  of  coop¬ 
erators  in  the  field.  It  has  succeeded  in  raising  an  endowment  of 


40  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

$160,000  for  its  work,  but  the  income  from  this,  together  with 
membership  fees,  guarantees  only  its  publications  and  the  running 
expenses  of  its  office.  It  has  made  no  experiments  in  telepathy, 
and  has  had  only  limited  opportunity  to  investigate  spontaneous 
phenomena.  But  it  has  managed  to  do  some  work  in  the  medium- 
istic  field,  and  maintains  its  “  Journal  ”  and  “  Proceedings  ”  with 
such  material  as  it  can  secure  from  personal  reports  and  the  experi¬ 
ments  with  a  few  psychics.  It  has  not  yet  exercised  any  such  in¬ 
fluence  over  the  public  as  has  the  English  Society.  Academic  and 
scientific  support,  probably  on  account  of  the  avowed  spiritistic 
sympathies  of  its  secretary,  has  been  weak. 

The  work,  however,  is  well  established,  and  probably  in  the 
future  will  not  be  neglected.  Enough  has  been  accomplished  to 
make  scientific  neglect  of  the  problem  inexcusable,  although  much 
work  remains  to  be  done,  to  overcome  prejudices  of  our  material¬ 
istic  age.  When  the  fact  is  commonly  recognized  that  psychic  re¬ 
search  is  concerned  not  with  a  metaphysical  theory,  but  with  the 
collection  of  facts  which  may  establish  a  great  truth,  the  bias  of 
the  scientific  world  will  be  overcome.  The  Societies  have  done 
much  to  further  this  progress ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  immediate 
future  will  see  the  barriers  of  prejudice  broken  down,  with  the 
serious  investigation  of  questions  more  far  reaching  than  those  in 
any  field  of  physical  science. 


PART  II 


PRELIMINARY  PROBLEMS 


1 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE 


Most  unsophisticated  people  have  no  difficulty  in  believ¬ 
ing  in  a  life  after  death,  especially  if  they  have  been 
taught  this  belief  in  infancy.  In  that  period  of  simple 
trust  in  their  superiors,  children  will  accept  what  they  are  taught, 
and  in  most  instances,  the  beliefs  adopted  at  that  time  remain  stable. 
In  many  people  the  beliefs  formed  in  childhood  cannot  be  shaken ;  in 
others,  if  the  old  beliefs  are  destroyed,  the  change  proves  disastrous. 
The  effect  of  the  change,  however,  depends  on  the  importance  which 
the  belief  holds  in  the  economy  of  the  personal  life.  If  it  be  the  one 
belief  that  has  organized  all  a  man’s  hopes  and  ideals,  any  rude  shock 
given  it  will  demolish  the  whole  fabric  of  character.  The  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  soul  is  so  central  to  the  hopes  of  many  people,  espe¬ 
cially  of  the  uneducated,  that  they  will  cling  to  it  against  all  odds 
and  resist  all  argument  to  give  it  up.  Taken  in  with  the  mother’s 
milk,  so  to  speak,  and  organizing  about  it  all  the  fundamental  inter¬ 
ests  of  life,  it  will  either  resist  argument  of  any  kind  or  yield  to  it 
only  with  the  surrender  of  human  ideals. 

There  are  many,  of  course,  who  can  shift  the  pivot  of  interest 
to  ideals  of  the  present  life.  But  they  have  some  ability  to  think, 
and  have  sufficiently  strong  will  to  shake  off  the  sense  of  dependence 
which  characterizes  the  child.  Many  people  remain  children  all 
their  lives;  it  is  they  who  suffer  most  from  the  shock  of  change  of 
belief.  But  those  who  grow  to  independence  of  judgment  may 
readily  stand  the  shock  of  skepticism  and  do  so  whenever  they 
can  substitute  another  interest  for  the  one  that  was  lost.  This 
class,  however,  represents  the  minority  of  the  human  race,  and 
usually  comprises  its  leaders.  Some  of  them  boldly  adopt  skep¬ 
ticism  and  its  consequences.  Others  attempt  to  justify  their  prim¬ 
itive  beliefs  in  the  name  of  philosophy.  The  unsophisticated  classes 
will  follow  one  or  another  of  these  leaders  according  to  their  tem- 

43 


44  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

peranients.  If  they  cling  to  the  interests  which  have  centered  about 
immortality,  they  accept  that  belief  on  faith,  or  authority.  But 
if  they  are  rebellious  or  conscious  of  the  real  difficulties  in  believing 
it,  they  doubt  it  or  give  it  up. 

The  one  consideration  which  determines  the  attitude  of  mind 
towards  this  and  all  other  beliefs  is  the  criterion  of  reality.  To  the 
unsophisticated  mind  this  criterion  is  seme-perception;  even  when 
it  believes  in  what  transcends  sensation,  it  tries  to  conceive  this 
assumed  reality  as  still  like  that  of  sense  in  all  but  constant  accessi¬ 
bility  to  perception.  This  conception,  of  course,  goes  to  show 
that  the  unsophisticated  easily  abandon  their  most  natural  stan¬ 
dard  of  reality.  But  they  cannot  give  a  consistent  account  of 
their  procedure;  and  are  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  rigidly  insist 
on  sense-perception  as  the  test  of  reality.  It  is  characteristic  of 
the  scientific  mind  to  accept  this  same  criterion  of  truth;  in  this 
respect  it  is  like  the  unsophisticated  mind.  But  they  differ  in  the 
greater  tenacity  with  which  the  scientific  mind  consciously  clings 
to  the  standard.  It  is  true  that  scientific  men  also  readily  abandon 
this  standard  for  one  which  acknowledges  realities  transcending 
sense-perception — for  example,  atoms,  ions,  electrons,  ether;  but 
these  men  differ  from  the  unsophisticated  in  adopting  the  maxim 
that  all  provable  truth  rests  upon  sense-perception.  To  them  prov¬ 
able  truth  is  what  they  can  make  another  person  believe  by  repro¬ 
ducing  in  him  sensations  which  compel  belief.  The  unsophisticated 
mind  has  no  such  rigid  standard  of  evidence.  It  accepts  as  sub¬ 
jectively  true  much  that  does  not  appeal  to  sense.  If  the  mind  can 
see  the  truth  for  itself  it  will  not  require  proof  in  sensory  pro¬ 
cesses;  but  if  it  cannot  see  the  truth  without  external  proof, 
such  objective  evidence  requires  sense-perception.  Herein  lies  the 
whole  difference  between  the  unsophisticated  and  the  scientific  mind. 
For  uncertainty,  according  to  the  scientific  mind,  attaches  to  every 
belief  or  statement  which  cannot  vouch  for  itself  in  terms  of  sense- 
perception.  It  may  be  true,  but  it  is  not  provable,  unless  represented 
in  sense-pictures  or  experiences.  Science  may  accept  facts  not  di¬ 
rectly  represented  in  sensation,  but  they  must  be  logically  involved 
in  what  sensation  attests.  The  final  test  for  science  is  some  sensa¬ 
tion  constant  or  easily  produced,  under  proper  conditions,  which 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE 


45 

will  enforce  the  conclusion.  The  unsophisticated  mind,  however, 
does  not  consciously  abandon  sense-perception  as  its  standard  of 
truth.  It  simply  has  not  analyzed  the  processes  which  determine 
conviction. 

There  are  many  degrees  between  these  two  extremes.  The  half 
scientific  and  half  unsophisticated  mind  will  combine  the  standards 
of  belief  in  all  sorts  of  ways;  and  it  is  in  this  intermediate  class 
that  all  the  perplexities  arise.  The  scientific  mind  that  does  not 
care  for  consequences,  moral  or  otherwise,  can  accept  without 
compunction  or  remorse  the  limits  which  sense-perception  pre¬ 
scribes  to  belief.  But  ethical  minds,  less  pugnacious  and  more 
sensitive,  halt  before  accepting  the  guidance  of  skepticism,  and 
struggle  with  might  and  main  to  save  their  ideals  and  beliefs  from 
the  corrosion  of  doubt. 

I  have  stated  the  case  with  some  care,  allowing  for  the  criticism 
always  made  against  wide  generalizations.  It  would  be  easier 
and  perhaps  would  satisfy  certain  skeptical  minds,  if  I  asserted 
that  the  test  of  all  truth  is  sense-perception  as  that  is  naively  under¬ 
stood.  Those  who  wish  to  perplex  the  naive  mind  may  make  this 
contention  feeling  secure  that  unsophisticated  persons  will  not  con¬ 
test  it.  But  while  it  is  true  that  the  test  of  reality  is  always  sense- 
perception,  it  is  true  with  a  qualification.  This  qualification  is, 
that  sensation  is  not  so  simple  a  matter  as  the  skeptic  would  like 
us  to  believe.  Besides  simple  or  pure  sensations  there  are  other 
mental  states,  which  we  usually  represent  by  the  term  judgment. 
This  term  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  existence  of  illusions. 
While  an  illusion  is  in  fact  an  error  of  judgment  or  inference,  it 
is  so  closely  connected  with  sense-perception  that  our  normal  habit 
is  to  represent  sense-perception  as  needing  correction  by  judgment. 
The  meaning  of  sensation  is  therefore  limited  to  the  simple  oc¬ 
currence  of  reaction  upon  external  stimulus  through  one  of  the 
sensory  end-organs;  so  defined  it  is  not  a  complete  standard  of 
truth  at  all,  but  the  elemental  datum  which  gives  rise  to  knowledge. 
Processes  of  judgment  on  constant  and  variable  sensory  experiences 
enable  us  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  things  much  more  accurately 
than  do  the  separate  sensations.  The  naive,  uncritical  mind  does 
not  go  beyond  the  most  elementary  use  of  judgment.  It  diseovevs 


46  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

few  illusions  and  ignores  those  which  it  does  discover.  The  critical 
scientific  mind  endeavors  to  find  unity  in  a  variable  experience,  as 
better  evidence  of  truth  than  that  found  in  unorganized  ex¬ 
perience. 

In  studying  the  question  of  a  future  life,  the  unsophisticated 
mind  follows  authority  or  its  wishes,  or,  if  it  relies  on  experience 
at  all,  accepts  what  the  more  critical  mind  resolves  into  illusions 
and  hallucinations.  The  primitive  savage  accepted  dreams  and 
apparitions  as  satisfactory  proof  of  another  life,  thus  relying  on 
real  or  apparent  sensory  data.  But  when  the  critical  or  philo¬ 
sophical  mind  approached  the  problem,  difficulties  arose,  which 
obliged  the  belief  in  a  future  life  to  seek  refuge  in  some  transcen¬ 
dental  philosophy  or  be  abandoned.  In  all  countries  where  philoso¬ 
phic  habits  of  mind  arose,  one  of  the  first  dogmas  questioned  was 
that  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul;  with  the  growth  of  materialism 
the  doubt  thus  raised  was  strengthened.  Previous  teaching  had 
maintained  that  matter  and  spirit  are  two  independent  realities, 
and  that  spirit  survives  death.  But  philosophy  distrusted  the 
idea  of  two  independent  substances  or  realities,  especially  if  one 
of  them  seemed  to  interfere  with  the  fixed  order  of  nature.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  primitive  believers  in  spirits  thought  them  capricious 
and  as  mischievous  as  any  power  over  nature  might  be.  Those 
who  observed  certain  regularities  in  the  world,  certain  fixed  laws, 
either  had  to  deny  any  interference  with  them  or  to  assign  to  spirit 
a  place  in  the  world  which  would  make  it  seem  ineffectual  and  un¬ 
related  to  the  causal  series  of  events.  With  sense-perception  as  the 
criterion  of  truth,  the  critical  mind  had  a  tendency  to  accept  matter 
as  the  fundamental  reality  of  the  world;  if  it  conceded  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirit  at  all,  it  did  so,  not  in  response  to  the  evidence,  but  in 
order  to  avoid  trouble.  In  accordance  with  its  standard  of  belief, 
it  usually  denied  the  evidence  or  dogmatically  asserted  the  non-ex¬ 
istence  of  spirit ;  this  is  the  position  of  both  materialism  and  agnos¬ 
ticism.  Agnosticism  means  that  we  have  no  basis  for  either  a  pos¬ 
itive  or  a  negative  conclusion ;  it  admits  that  we  cannot  know  that 
spirit  does  not  exist.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  only  tenable  position  for 
any  intelligent  skeptic.  It  follows  from  his  maintenance  of  sense- 
perception  as  the  test  of  reality.  The  absence  of  sense-perception 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE  47 

of  spirit  does  not  prove  that  spirit  does  not  exist,  if  we  define  spirit 
as  transcending  sense-perception.  Such  absence  merely  shows  that 
the  belief  lacks  satisfactory  evidence.  But  materialism  denies  the 
reality  of  spirit,  on  what  it  supposes  to  be  satisfactory  evidence  that 
mental  phenomena  are  but  products  of  the  brain.  It  is  this  theory, 
firmly  rooted  in  many  minds,  that  disturbs  the  belief  in  a  future 
life. 

Materialism  has  a  long  history  and  stands  for  two  rather  distinct 
conceptions.  In  the  present  age,  it  is  the  result  of  several  sets  of 
facts,  which  we  can  only  briefly  state.  Materialism  has  two  forms : 
sensational  materialism  and  philosophical  materialism.  The  first 
of  these  is  opposed  to  idealism  and  the  second  to  spiritualism.  If 
spiritualism  and  idealism  were  identical  there  would  be  but  one 
form  of  materialism;  but  they  are  far  from  identical,  as  every 
philosopher  well  knows.  Most  materialistic  philosophers  evade 
the  real  issue  by  contrasting  materialism  with  idealism,  and  allow 
the  layman  to  think  that  they  are  quite  orthodox  on  the  doctrine 
of  immortality,  though  they  are  careful  to  leave  their  teaching  on 
this  point  indefinite.  This  sensational  materialism  is  founded  on 
the  naive  view  of  the  world  as  presented  to  sense-perception.  The 
idealist  has  become  convinced  that  knowledge  and  reality  are 
not  adequately  expressed  in  sense-experience ;  and  as  the  ma¬ 
terial  world  is  supposed  to  be  represented  by  sense-percep¬ 
tion  (though  the  scientific  view  of  the  material  world  is  not  so 
expressed)  the  idealist  calls  that  view  of  the  world  materialism 
which  is  more  or  less  interchangeable  with  naive  realism :  namely, 
the  view  that  sensation  rightly  represents  the  nature  world  of 
matter  and  hence  of  reality.  The  idealist  denies  materialism  thus 
conceived,  by  asserting  that  some  sort  of  transcendental  reality 
exists  behind  sensation. 

But  a  man  may  be  at  the  same  time  an  idealist  and  a  philosophical 
materialist.  Philosophical  materialism  is  based  upon  as  super¬ 
sensible  a  conception  of  matter  as  that  maintained  by  any  spir¬ 
itualism  or  theism.  Like  idealism,  it  does  not  rely  upon  sense- 
perception  as  the  test  of  truth.  It  regards  the  real  nature  of  things 
as  hidden  from  the  senses.  It  bases  the  whole  sensible  world  upon 
supersensible  realities  as  its  elements  or  cause.  This  philosophic 


48  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

materialism  began  at  the  time  of  Empedocles  and  Democritus  and 
was  developed  by  the  Epicureans.  The  atoms  which  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  whole  sensory  world  were  regarded  as  supersensible: 
it  was  their  combination  in  the  various  forms  of  things  that  af¬ 
fects  the  senses  and  explains  the  world  as  we  know  it  in  sense- 
perception.  These  earlier  materialists,  however,  admitted  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  souls,  as  fine  material  or  “  ethereal  ”  organism.  But 
some  of  them  denied  the  survival  of  this  ethereal  organism,  which 
corresponded  to  the  astral  body  of  the  theosophists  and  the  “  spir¬ 
itual  body  ”  of  St.  Paul.  Christianity  tried  to  prove  by  the  story 
of  the  resurrection  that  this  soul  did  not  perish,  though  its  theory 
of  the  bodily  resurrection  made  the  belief  only  more  difficult  and 
required  a  most  elaborate  philosophy  to  sustain  it.  The  real  con¬ 
ception  of  the  resurrection  at  the  time,  at  least  among  most  intel¬ 
ligent  people,  as  indicated  in  the  New  Testament,  was  that  of  ap¬ 
paritions,  the  visible  appearance  of  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  after 
death.  Christianity  thus  directly  denied  the  materialist’s  view  of 
death  as  the  end  of  all.  It  did  not  deny  the  existence  of  atoms;  it 
simply  affirmed  the  survival  and  reappearance  of  the  “  spiritual 
body,”  which,  for  all  practical  purposes,  was  synonymous  with  the 
soul.  The  materialist  was  challenged  either  to  abandon  or  to 
modify  his  theory. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  materialist  chose  the  latter  course.  He 
gave  up  the  hypothesis  of  an  ethereal  organism  as  the  source  of 
consciousness,  and  connected  consciousness  directly  with  the  body 
or  brain  as  a  collection  of  atoms.  Consciousness  thus  became  a 
function  of  a  complex  organism  rather  than  a  function  of  a  spirit 
or  soul;  and,  as  all  functions  of  the  physical  body  perish,  the  same 
fate  was  held  to  await  consciousness.  This  view  seems  to  be  sat¬ 
isfactorily  upheld  by  normal  experience.  Mental  states  are  ac¬ 
companied  by  physical  structure;  when  this  structure  is  dissolved 
by  death  there  are  no  traces,  at  least  in  normal  experience,  of  the 
independent  existence  of  consciousness.  It  was  quite  natural  to 
infer  that  it  does  not  survive.  It  is  true  that  the  conclusion  is  not 
absolutely  assured,  but  if  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  on  the  con¬ 
trary  side,  we  have  at  least  to  confess  total  ignorance;  and  the 
certainty  that  all  other  functions  of  the  organism  peri.sh  will  estab- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE  49 

lish  a  strong  probability  that  consciousness  is  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  Its  survival  can  be  proved  only  by  showing  that  it  is  not 
a  function  similar  to  those  that  manifestly  perish,  or  by  bringing 
forward  actual  instances  of  such  survival. 

This  outline  of  the  situation  created  by  modern  materialism 
shows  just  how  we  have  to  attack  the  problem.  We  have  to  ad¬ 
duce  evidence  that  consciousness  is  not  a  function  of  the  physical 
body.  We  can  no  longer  rely  on  the  philosophical  method,  which 
was  based  on  the  theory  that  consciousness  is  a  unique  phenomenon, 
which  cannot  be  reduced  to  mechanical  equivalents,  nor  conceived 
as  a  by-product  of  the  physical  organism.  It  is  true  enough  that 
consciousness  has  not  beeen  reduced  to  mechanical  laws  nor  iden¬ 
tified  with  any  chain  of  physical  events.  But  this  failure  is  no  proof 
that  consciousness  is  not  derived  frdm  physical  phenomena.  The 
burden  of  proof  is  thrown  on  the  man  who  affirms  that  it  is  so 
derived,  but  the  question  is  left  open,  ^mmon  sense  could  not 
believe  that  light  and  sound  are  vibrations,  but  science  proved  that 
they  are,  even  though  the  senses  do  not  directly  reveal  the  fact. 
If,  therefore,  light  and  sound  can  be  reduced  to  supersensible  phys¬ 
ical  phenomena,  may  not  consciousness  be  similarly  explained?  At 
any  rate  the  philosopher  could  not  dogmatize  on  the  subject,  and  the 
nature  of  consciousness  had  to  remain  an  open  question;  yet  the 
philosophic  proof  for  the  existence  of  the  soul  depended  on  the  as¬ 
sumption  that  we  know  enough  of  its  nature  to  deny  its  physical 
character. 

The  whole  problem  was  shifted  over  to  science,  which  is  occupied 
primarily  with  facts  and  only  secondarily  with  the  nature  of  reality. 
Philosophy  tried  to  explain  consciousness  and  to  infer  its  survival 
from  a  theory  of  its  nature.  Science  let  its  nature  alone  and  tried 
to  study  its  behavior.  It  is  concerned  primarily  with  evidence  and 
secondarily  with  explanation,  while  philosophy  in  the  past  has  been 
too  much  occupied  with  explanations  and  too  little  with  evidence. 
Science  begs  no  questions  as  to  the  nature  of  anything.  It  first 
ascertains  the  facts  and  then  expresses  the  nature  of  a  thing  in 
accordance  with  those  facts  as  its  effects  or  manifestations.  When 
the  philosophic  method  of  proving  immortality  broke  down,  there 
was  nothing  left  but  to  apply  to  science  for  the  solution.  Philoso- 


50  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

phy,  in  all  its  development,  had  depended  on  science  for  its  prem¬ 
ises,  though  it  was  disposed  to  admit  this  dependence  only  very 
grudgingly,  if  at  all.  The  success  of  science,  however,  in  over¬ 
throwing  many  philosophic  beliefs,  and  especially  religious  beliefs, 
gave  that  method  the  highest  authority  in  the  determination  of 
truth.  As  it  pronounced  in  favor  of  materialism,  it  aroused  the 
most  determined  opposition  of  all  who  were  interested  in  preserv'- 
ing  such  a  belief  as  survival  after  death,  whether  they  undertook 
to  defend  it  by  religion  and  faith  or  by  philosophy.  But  there  is 
no  escape  from  the  verdict  of  science;  on  it  depends  the  proof  or 
disproof  of  survival.  Theology  and  philosophy  are  now  discred¬ 
ited  authorities;  if  science  cannot  ascertain  facts  to  prove  immor¬ 
tality  the  belief  is  negligible.  We  may  still  insist  on  hoping  for 
survival,  but  our  hope  will  not  have  the  credentials  that  the  pres¬ 
ent  age  requires  for  all  its  beliefs.  In  ages  when  wishes  and  hopes 
are  accepted  as  adequate  reasons  for  belief,  faith  may  survive ;  but 
when  the  demand  for  assured  evidence  is  made,  science  must  take 
up  the  task  of  making  a  negative  or  an  affirmative  decision. 

That  task  involves  the  question,  whether  individual  conscious¬ 
ness  can  be  isolated  from  its  apparently  fixed,  but  really  temporary, 
connection  with  the  body.  The  fact  is,  that  science  has  never 
proved  that  we  do  not  survive.  It  has  but  established  a  theory 
on  which  the  doubt  or  denial  seems  natural.  While  it  knows  that, 
in  normal  experience,  consciousness  is  associated  with  an  organism 
and  that,  when  the  organism  perishes,  jthere  seem  to  be  no  traces 
of  this  consciousness,  it  knows  only  that  in  normal  experience  it 
simply  is  without  evidence  for  survival.  It  does  not  have  proof  of 
annihilation.  Its  theory  is  but  a  working  hypothesis,  one  of  great 
strength,  it  is  true,  and  convincing  in  proportion  to  the  neglect  of 
phenomena  which  appear  to  suggest  the  survival  of  consciousness. 
Yet  it  has  not  demonstrated  the  destruction  of  consciousness.  Nor 
is  it  easy  to  do  so,  while  certain  phenomena  continue  to  throw  doubt 
on  the  conclusions  of  materialism.  The  present  strength  of  ma¬ 
terialism  is  due  entirely  to  its  neglect  of  these  phenomena.  It  has 
considered  the  facts  which  fit  its  theory  and  has  disregarded  all  that 
are  inconsistent  with  it;  and  now  psychic  research,  employing  the 
same  scientific  method,  has  become  the  Nemesis  of  materialism. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE 


51 

Psychic  research  endeavors  to  isolate  an  individual  consciousness, 
or  to  ascertain  facts  which  prove  that  isolation,  by  the  same  method 
that  a  chemist  uses  when  he  proves  the  existence  of  a  new  element. 

The  facts  purporting  to  attest  survival  are  apparitions  and  al¬ 
leged  communication  with  the  dead.  There  are  other  supernormal 
phenomena  of  great  interest,  but  they  do  not  directly  prove  the 
existence  of  spirit,  and  perhaps  would  not  even  suggest  it  to  crit¬ 
ical  minds.  Apparitions  and  mediumistic  phenomena,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  if  their  validity  can  be  proved,  certainly  conform  to  the 
scientific  demand  for  the  isolation  of  an  individual  consciousness. 
They  at  least  are  the  kind  of  phenomena  which  we  might  expect  if 
spirits  exist  and  can  produce  any  effect  in  the  physical  world.  They 
show  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  decide  the  nature  of  consciousness 
before  believing  in  survival,  that  we  may  prove  or  show  to  be 
probable  the  fact  of  survival,  while  leaving  the  nature  of  conscious¬ 
ness  wholly  unexamined.  The  result  may  give  rise  to  a  philosophy, 
but  does  not  depend  on  it. 

Before  the  adoption  of  the  scientific  method,  men  paid  the  pen¬ 
alty  for  being  less  thorough  than  the  situation  required.  They 
exposed  their  belief  to  the  corrosive  influence  of  the  doubt  cast  by 
further  knowledge.  We  have  arrived  at  a  stage  of  culture  in  which 
the  faiths  of  the  past  have  lost  their  power.  The  triumphs  of 
science  have  established  the  confidence  of  men  in  its  practical  value 
and  in  its  ability  to  explain  the  universe.  The  intelligence  of  the 
world  is  on  its  side;  and  mankind  must  follow  intelligence  always, 
if  it  is  to  gain  its  ends.  Evidence,  proof,  reason,  fact  instead  of 
faith,  hope  and  desire  influence  belief.  Whatever  value  these  lat¬ 
ter  have,  rests  on  the  basis  of  proved  truth,  not  on  imagination 
and  arbitrary  hopes  originating  in  the  emotions  and  the  will. 

The  problem  is,  therefore,  not  to  bolster  up  faith  without  sci¬ 
ence,  but  to  establish  the  truth  by  science,  so  that  faith  will  become 
either  unnecessary  or  rational.  The  authority  of  the  priesthood 
is  lost.  If  it  acknowledges  the  conclusions  of  science,  it  can  regain 
its  power,  but  only  on  that  condition.  The  intelligent  world  no 
longer  takes  its  ipse  dixit  as  final,  but  asks  for  evidence,  which 
science  alone  can  furnish.  Materialism  also  must  no  longer  select 
for  consideration  only  the  phenomena  which  support  its  precon- 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


52 

ceived  theories,  based  upon  a  partial  view  of  nature.  It  must  take 
into  account  the  exceptional  phenomena  as  well  as  the  regular 
routine  of  experience.  If  it  fails  to  dO'  this,  it  is  exposed  to  the 
same  criticism  that  it  has  directed  against  faith.  It  is  only  another 
dogmatism  to  neglect  the  rare  facts  of  nature,  a  dogmatism  the 
less  excusable  because  science  professes  to  found  its  beliefs  on 
facts  and  not  on  preconceptions.  Even  in  physical  science,  the 
exceptional  phenomena  of  nature  have  deeper  significance  than 
ordinary  occurrences.  The  discovery  of  Roentgen  rays  was  due 
to  an  accident.  The  discovery  of  argon  was  due  to  the  observa¬ 
tion  of  an  anomaly  in  the  behavior  of  nitrogen,  the  neglect  of  which 
would  have  resulted  in  a  false  conception  of  that  element.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  beyond  the  function  of  science  to  study  the  unex¬ 
plained  phenomena  of  mind.  They  cannot  be  explained  as  merely 
abnormal  events.  Whatever  place  abnormality  may  have  in  them, 
there  is  a  relation  between  some  of  them  and  events  not  known 
to  the  subject,  which  makes  some  new  explanation  imperative. 
The  facts  have  to  be  explained,  and  they  are  not  explained  by  the 
usual  theories.  To  deny  the  facts  is  not  to  explain  them.  The 
question  is:  do  they  demonstrate  the  isolation  of  consciousness 
from  the  body? 

Of  course,  to  laymen,  the  problem  does  not  seem  so  technical. 
They  follow  public  opinion  in  their  conception  of  the  issues.  In  all 
ages,  being  unable  to  investigate  or  philosophize  for  themselves, 
they  have  relied  on  the  intelligent  members  of  the  community  to 
furnish  them  their  science  and  their  philosophy.  They  have  ac¬ 
cepted  all  ideas  on  authority.  When  the  intelligent  classes  were 
priests  and  philosophers  and  believed  in  immortality,  the  laymen 
felt  assured  of  the  truth  of  the  belief.  But  when  these  same  classes 
of  men  doubt  or  deny  it,  the  laymen  either  follow  them  into  skep¬ 
ticism,  or  allow  the  belief  to  atrophy.  They  may  not  have  the 
courage  to  deny  it  altogether,  but  they  feel  their  inability  to  defend 
it  except  by  sheer  force  of  will  or  faith.  Niceties  of  scientific 
method  do  not  enter  into  their  processes  of  fixing  their  beliefs. 
They  simply  seize  the  easiest  way  of  deciding  the  question,  either 
yielding  to  authority  on  one  side  or  the  other,  or  stubbornly  stand¬ 
ing  by  their  emotional  preferences. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE  53 

But  wishes  and  hopes  cannot  remove  the  doubts  which  critical 
minds  thrust  at  us.  We  have  to  overcome  emotional  bias,  or  the 
belief  which  has  exercised  such  a  powerful  influence  on  the  past 
will  decay  as  all  inadequately  supported  doctrines  have  done.  We 
must  invoke  the  method  which  has  destroyed  so  much,  and  insist 
that  it  shall  do  constructive  instead  of  destructive  work.  It  must 
take  account  of  all  the  facts,  instead  of  neglecting  some  in  the 
interest  of  a  theory  which  selects  what  it  likes  and  lays  more  stress 
on  the  uniformities  of  nature  than  does  nature  herself.  We  must 
show  that  consciousness  can  actually  be  dissociated  from  matter, 
instead  of  inferring  our  conclusion  from  insufficient  premises. 

The  isolation  of  an  individual  consciousness  involves  getting  into 
some  form  of  communication  with  discarnate  personality,  or  dem¬ 
onstrating  facts  which  indicate  the  influence  of  discarnate  mind 
upon  the  animate  or  the  inanimate  world.  It  will  not  be  enough  to 
prove  that  the  brain  cannot  altogether  account  for  consciousness. 
We  have  to  prove  the  survival  of  personal  identity ;  that  is,  of  a 
personal  stream  of  consciousness  with  its  memories  of  past  earthly 
life.  A  soul  might  lose  its  identity  or  its  self-consciousness  and 
continue  to  exist  like  an  atom,  without  manifesting  the  properties 
apparent  in  a  previous  combination  or  “  incarnation.”  Hence  we 
require  to  know  whether  it  is  the  same  mind  that  manifests  itself 
after  death  as  before.  Facts  which  present  (i)  supernormal 
knowledge,  due  neither  to  chance  nor  to  normal  sense-perception,  and 
(2)  evidence  of  the  personal  identity  or  the  personal  memories  of 
the  deceased,  are  the  data  needed  to  prove  the  isolation  of  an  indi¬ 
vidual  consciousness  from  its  physical  organism. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE 


The  present  chapter  is  closely  connected  with  the  preceding, 
for  the  nature  of  the  problem  largely  determines  the 
nature  of  the  evidence.  But  the  problem  has  been  so 
complicated  by  concern  with  religion  and  magic  that  these  subjects 
are  inevitably  brought  into  the  discussion;  various  problems  of  ab¬ 
normal  psychology  are  also  involved.  So  many  facts  are 
erroneously  claimed  by  unsophisticated  minds  to  be  proof  of  the 
intervention  of  spirits,  that  a  very  large  field  has  to  be  canvassed 
in  the  search  for  evidential  material. 

Besides,  the  sifting  of  evidence  is  a  very  complex  matter.  A  fact 
in  relation  to  another  fact  may  be  evidence,  but  out  of  that  rela¬ 
tion  the  same  fact  might  not  be  evidence  at  all.  It  is  therefore 
necessary  briefly  to  examine  the  law  of  evidence.  Let  me  take 
some  concrete  illustrations. 

A  human  body  is  found  with  a  bullet  hole  in  the  head  and  a  re¬ 
volver  lying  near  the  body.  If  nothing  is  known  about  the  person 
either  suicide  or  murder  may  account  for  the  situation.  If  the 
man  is  known  to  have  been  despondent,  to  have  failed  in  business  or 
some  other  project,  or  to  have  been  generally  disappointed  with 
life,  the  suspicion  of  suicide  becomes  stronger,  and  anything  like 
knowledge  of  a  previous  threat  of  it  would  weaken  the  hypothesis 
of  murder.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  man  is  known  to  have  been 
an  upright  person  in  the  community,  a  religious  man,  successful  in 
business,  with  a  happy  family  and  nothing  to  make  him  unhappy, 
the  theory  of  suicide  would  be  less  tenable.  Not  the  mere  fact  of 
death  by  a  bullet  wound  decides  the  question,  but  other  general 
facts  in  the  person’s  life  are  included  in  the  evidence. 

Suppose,  however,  that  we  know  nothing  about  the  man  and  his 
life  and  have  to  seek  evidence  from  other  sources.  If,  then,  we 
hnd  that  the  revolver  was  purchased  at  a  certain  store,  not  by  the 

54 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE  55 

victim,  this  discovery  would  provide  circumstantial  evidence  that 
the  man  had  not  committed  suicide.  It  would  not  constitute  proof, 
as  the  victim  might  have  secured  the  weapon  after  its  purchase. 
Suppose,  however,  that  finger  prints  on  the  weapon  are  those  not 
of  the  victim  but  those  of  the  purchaser.  This  fact  would  greatly 
strengthen  the  suspicion  of  murder.  Only  an  alibi  or  proof  that 
these  same  finger  marks  had  been  observed  on  the  revolver  before 
the  man’s  death  could  remove  that  suspicion.  If  now  we  should 
discover  boot  tracks  near  the  body,  and  these  tracks  could  be  iden¬ 
tified  with  those  of  the  purchaser  of  the  weapon,  we  should  have 
additional,  though  not  conclusive,  evidence  of  his  guilt.  If  to  this 
we  could  add  evidence  that  he  had  previously  threatened  the  man 
with  death,  had  been  a  personal  enemy,  and  had  actually  been  in 
the  vicinity  at  the  time,  the  case  would  be  very  nearly  established. 
The  convergence  of  a  large  number  of  incidents,  each  of  which 
alone  might  look  like  chance  coincidence,  would  prove  the  deed. 
All  the  facts  must  consist  with  the  hypothesis.  Mere  coincidence 
between  two  events  does  not  prove  a  connection  between  them, 
though  it  may  suggest  a  hypothesis.  This  coincidence  must  be  as¬ 
sociated  with  a  number  of  others,  all  of  which  hang  together.  But 
the  uneducated  mind  rests  content  with  a  single  coincidence  and  in 
this  way  is  led  into  all  sorts  of  errors. 

When  it  considers  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits  the  un¬ 
trained  mind  has  always  been  accustomed  to  appeal  to  every  “  won¬ 
derful  ”  occurrence  as  proper  evidence.  It  frequently  regards  any 
unusual  fact  as  an  incentive  to  apply  explanations  that  do  not  fit. 
It  is  not  merely  the  unusual  character  of  a  fact  that  gives  it  eviden¬ 
tial  interest  or  force.  It  must  be  unusual  if  it  is  to  be  evidence  of  a 
fact  hitherto  unknown,  but  it  need  not  be  any  more  unusual  than 
the  fact  which  it  attests.  This  is  perhaps  a  truism;  but,  because 
prejudiced  people  try  to  represent  as  miraculous  or  supernatural 
the  facts  which  psychic  research  adduces  as  evidence  of  spirits,  it 
is  necessary  to  make  clear  two  things:  ( i )  that  no  one  regards  as 
supernatural  the  new  discoveries  constantly  being  made  in  physical 
science;  (2)  that  the  idea  of  spirits  is  no  more  strange  than  that  of 
a  new  element  in  chemistry.  They  are  but  the  continuation  of  the 
consciousness  we  formerly  knew  as  embodied. 


56  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

It  was  the  work  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  to  dis¬ 
criminate  among  the  phenomena  it  was  investigating.  Its  first 
task  was  to  classify  them  and  to  distinguish  between  those  relevant 
to  the  hypothesis  of  spirits  and  those  that  have  no  bearing  on  the 
subject.  The  spiritualists  had  classed  together  all  unusual  phe¬ 
nomena,  physical  and  mental,  claiming  all  of  them  as  spiritistic. 

Before  we  have  any  right  to  assert  or  suppose  the  existence  of 
spirits,  we  must  adduce  facts  that  imply  supernormal  knowledge, 
and  this  supernormal  knowledge  must  be  such  as  could  be  obtained 
only  by  communication  from  the  dead.  The  term  normal  is  purely 
relative.  We  can  best  give  its  meaning  by  illustrations.  For  in¬ 
stance,  we  can  normally  see  a  house  some  miles  distant,  but  we 
could  not  normally  see  a  fly  at  the  same  distance.  The  term  normal 
is  relative  to  the  conditions  limiting  the  activity  of  our  senses. 
The  existence  of  the  normal,  as  well  as  of  the  supernormal,  has  to 
be  proved  by  evidence.  Only  because  this  proof  is  easily  within  the 
reach  of  every  one,  we  forget  the  grounds  on  which  it  rests.  The 
limits  of  the  supernormal  are  also  determined  by  evidence,  not  by 
definition.  If  a  man  in  America  should  have  an  accurate  vision 
of  events  in  Europe,  we  should  call  his  perception  supernormal, 
whatever  the  process  involved.  Whether  such  a  vision  has  actually 
occurred  is  only  a  matter  of  evidence;  we  cannot  say  that  it  is  im¬ 
possible. 

But  before  we  admit  the  existence  of  anything  so  unusual  we 
require  that  the  evidence  be  critically  tested  and  that  the  facts  be 
inexplicable  by  any  known  law.  To  call  such  a  phenomenon  as 
the  vision  of  events  in  Europe  clairvoyance,  is  to  give  the  fact 
a  name,  not  an  explanation.  If  the  claim  to  the  vision  could  not 
be  confirmed  by  testimony  from  some  one  else  than  the  visionary, 
we  should  not  regard  it  as  proved.  The  veracity  of  the  person 
might  not  be  questioned,  but  some  illusion  or  mistake  of  judgment 
might  stand  in  the  way  of  our  accepting  his  statement.  If  the 
reporter  and  subject  of  the  experience  were  a  scientific  man,  the 
statement  would  have  more  weight  than  if  he  were  an  ignorant 
layman,  simply  because  the  scientific  man  has  the  habit  of  accurate 
observation  and  statement.  But  even  then  there  would  be  the 
possibility  of  error  unless  his  account  could  be  confirmed  by  the 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE 


SI 

testimony  of  others.  If  a  scientific  man  were  to  relate  such  an  ex¬ 
perience  in  a  detailed  manner,  before  the  objective  facts  could 
become  known  to  him  and  those  in  his  vicinity,  corroboration  by 
others  would  exempt  him  from  the  suspicion  of  error,  illusion,  or 
mendacity.  The  facts  would  then  stand  otit  as  unusual,  and  per¬ 
haps  as  requiring  a  new  law  to  explain  them. 

Conclusive  evidence  of  an  hypothesis  must  exclude  every  inter¬ 
pretation  except  the  one  supposed;  it  must  conform  to  two  condi¬ 
tions,  one  positive  and  the  other  negative.  The  exclusion  of  a 
given  interpretation  is  negative  evidence;  the  applicability  of  the 
hypothesis  to  the  facts  is  positive  evidence.  Thus  the  exclusion 
of  fraud  would  be  negative  evidence  for  spiritism,  if  that  were  the 
theory  in  question.  But  the  fitness  of  the  facts  to  prove  the  special 
theory  concerned,  say  the  survival  of  personal  identity,  would  be 
positive  evidence.  If  spirits  are  to  be  proved  to  exist,  the  facts 
must  indicate  the  continued  personal  identity  of  deceased  persons, 
must  be  verified  by  living  people,  and  provably  supernormal  in 
their  origin. 

In  estimating  the  alleged  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits 
we  have  first  to  eliminate  the  explanations  grouped  under  the  name 
of  fraud.  This  may  take  the  form  of  lying  about  the  facts,  or 
trickery  in  performing  feats  claimed  to  be  of  spirit  origin.  But 
we  must  be  exact  in  our  conception  of  fraud.  Fraud  is  not  the 
act  performed,  but  the  motive  of  the  act.  It  implies  the  conscious 
purpose  to  deceive,  whether  by  false  statements  or  by  acts  calculated 
to  lead  one  to  form  incorrect  judgments  as  to  the  facts.  If  a  man 
should  make  a  false  statement  in  his  sleep,  or  in  a  trance,  or  under 
hypnosis,  I  should  have  no  right  to  ascribe  lying  or  fraud  to  him. 
He  himself  might  be  deceived  by  dreams,  hallucinations,  or  illusions. 
Hence  many  actions  and  statements  are  exempt  from  the  suspicion 
of  fraud,  for  instance,  all  actions  and  statements  during  som¬ 
nambulism,  trance,  hysteria  (if  of  an  automatic  type),  ordinary 
sleep,  intoxication,  insanity  (if  of  the  hallucinatory  type),  and 
similar  abnormal  mental  conditions.  We  must  have  proof  that 
the  person  is  normally  conscious  in  order  to  attribute  fraud  to  him. 

Moreover  we  must  not  confuse  the  deception  of  the  observer  with 
the  purpose  of  the  actor.  The  fraudulent  person  aims  at  deception 


58  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

by  misrepresentation.  The  deception  of  the  conjurer,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  legitimate  enough,  because  he  does  not  claim  any  super¬ 
normal  elements  in  his  exhibitions.  The  observer  lets  himself  be 
deceived  by  what  the  conjurer  frankly  avows  is  a  trick.  But  the 
fraudulent  person  maintains  that  the  apparent  facts  are  real, 
despite  his  knowledge  to  the  contrary.  If  the  person  is  normal, 
his  honesty  may  be  judged  by  his  acts ;  but  if  the  subject  is  abnormal, 
the  phenomena  are  in  the  domain  of  abnormal  psychology,  not  of 
trickery. 

We  are  concerned,  however,  solely  with  the  cause  and  the  ex¬ 
planation  of  experiences,  not  with  the  motive  of  the  subject.  That 
cause  may  be  subjective  or  objective.  If  the  experience  has  no  dis¬ 
coverable  sensory  stimulus  and  yet  coincides  with  some  objective 
event  out  of  the  reach  of  normal  sense-perception  it  is  supernormal. 
Honesty  has  no  importance  in  determining  the  nature  of  the  phe¬ 
nomena.  Only  tests  to  exclude  nonnal  knowledge  and  sensation 
can  decide  whether  the  facts  are  supernormal  or  not.  For  this 
reason  the  scientist  does  not  care  whether  he  is  dealing  with  frauds 
or  not,  if  only  he  can  determine  the  conditions  under  which  the 
phenomena  are  produced.  The  fraudulent  person,  of  course,  will 
not  usually,  if  ever,  permit  this  sort  of  experiment.  But  if  the 
dishonest  subject  will  submit  to  scientific  conditions  we  shall  not 
enter  into  the  consideration  of  character  or  motives.  However, 
in  the  work  of  persuading  the  public  it  is  important  to  be  assured 
that  the  subject  of  experiment  is  honest,  because  the  public  wrongly 
assumes  that  phenomena  are  genuine  if  the  subject  is  honest. 

But  we  have  not  satisfied  all  the  conditions  of  evidence  for  the 
supernormal  merely  by  removing  the  fact  or  the  relevance  of  fraud. 
We  must  reckon  with  the  subconscious  or  subliminal  functions  of 
the  mind.  At  one  time  subconscious  mental  activities  were  as  yet 
undiscovered.  We  could  not  then  reckon  with  subconscious  action 
as  an  alternative  to  genuine  supernormal  experience.  The  choice 
lay  between  the  fraudulent  and  the  genuine  in  all  normal  persons. 
But  the  discovery  that  the  mind  has  subconscious  activities  has  com¬ 
pletely  altered  the  situation.  We  have  all  along  known  what  we 
called  “  unconscious,”  by  which  we  meant  merely  involuntary, 
actions,  whose  meaning  we  ourselves  learned  as  they  proceeded. 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE  59 

Here  lies  the  border-land  of  the  subconscious.  Strictly  speaking, 
subconscious  or  subliminal  actions  are  those  of  which  the  subject 
is  wholly  unaware.  Our  thoughts  and  actions  in  sleep,  hypnosis, 
or  trance  are  illustrations.  In  our  normal  state,  we  have  no  recol¬ 
lection  of  them.  The  distinctive  marks  of  subconscious  activities 
are  anaesthesia  and  amnesia,  i.  e.,  insensibility  and  inability  to  re¬ 
member.  In  sleep,  trance,  somnambulism,  hysteria  and  various 
forms  of  insanity  these  phenomena  are  constant.  They  show  the 
continuance  of  mental  action  after  normal  sensibility  or  conscious¬ 
ness  has  been  suppressed. 

Now  we  may  exclude  fraud  from  the  explanation  of  alleged 
supernormal  phenomena  and  yet  have  subconscious  action  of  the 
subject  to  reckon  with  in  explaining  them.  If  apparently  super¬ 
normal  phenomena  can  be  explained  by  the  resurrection  of  sub¬ 
conscious  memories  or  the  production  of  automatic  actions  the  claims 
of  supernormality  must  be  abandoned.  Suppose,  for  instance,  that 
John  Smith  reported  to  us  that  he  had  seen  the  ghost  of  Mary 
Jones.  Having  established  his  honesty,  we  should  then  wish  to 
know  whether  he  knew  that  Mary  Jones  was  dead.  If  he  did,  we 
might  explain  the  circumstance  as  a  casual  hallucination  or  a  dream. 
The  operation  of  memory  would  suffice  to  explain  it,  or  to  classify 
it  with  known  facts.  If  Mary  Jones  were  found  to  be  alive,  the 
case  would  be  strengthened.  If  Mary  Jones  had  died  without  John 
Smith’s  knowledge,  we  might  still  consider  the  vision  a  chance 
coincidence.  It  would  be  more  difficult  to  explain  it  thus,  if  we 
found  that  the  apparition  occurred  very  close  to  the  time  of  death. 
The  time  element  is  always  an  important  factor  in  eliminating 
chance ;  close  correspondence  of  the  experience  with  the  event  in¬ 
dicated  by  it  strengthens  the  case.  But  the  question  of  chance 
coincidence  and  guessing  enters  only  after  we  have  eliminated  the 
subconscious. 

Many  visions  and  hallucinations  are  referable  to  the  subconscious, 
because  their  content  can  be  reduced  to  previous  experiences.  We 
cannot  assume  that  there  are  supernormal  dreams  or  visions  un¬ 
til  we  have  eliminated  the  influence  of  previous  experience  upon 
the  contents  of  the  incidents.  Hence,  until  we  can  report  dreams 
or  visions  of  verifiable  facts  not  previously  known  to  the  subject. 


6o 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


we  are  obliged  to  suspect  subconscious  memory  as  a  sufficient  ex¬ 
planation. 

\\'e  must  remember,  however,  that  the  nature  and  limits  of  the 
subconscious  have  not  been  accurately  determined.  This  is  both 
an  advantage  and  a  difficulty  to  the  defender  of  the  supernormal. 
It  is  an  advantage  because  it  challenges  the  advocate  of  subconscious 
action  to  show  whether  the  process  has  been  proved  to  include 
cases  of  the  kind  in  question.  It  is  a  disadvantage,  however,  be¬ 
cause  the  defender  of  the  subconscious  as  an  explanation  may 
insist  that  its  unassigned  limits  permit  him  to  suppose  its  power  to 
be  unlimited. 

Scientific  method,  however,  does  not  allow  us  to  use  the  subcon¬ 
scious  as  an  explanation  beyond  its  proved  capacities.  We  have 
no  evidence  that  the  subliminal,  of  its  own  power  and  apart  from 
normal  sensory  stimuli,  can  acquire  any  knowledge.  It  has  no 
known  transcendental  powers.  It  is  a  name  for  mental  action 
below  the  threshold  of  consciousness,  or  above  it,  if  you  wish  to 
include  hyper?esthetic  conditions,  but  it  is  always  dependent  on 
normal  stimuli  for  its  contents,  unless  the  supernormal  be  at  once 
granted  as  a  fact.  Its  capacity  is  thus  as  limited  as  that  of  the 
normal  mind,  and  it  exhibits  no  functions  other  than  those  of  the 
normal  mind,  even  when  real  or  alleged  supernormal  phenomena 
filter  through  it. 

This  limitation  of  subliminal  activity  is  a  restriction  on  the 
skeptic  who  wishes  to  apply  it  as  a  universal  explanation.  He 
must  first  show  the  relevance  of  the  application,  which  depends  on 
showing  that  the  previous  knowledge  supplied  the  subject  with  the 
data  for  subliminal  use ;  and  his  application  must  be  strictly  limited 
by  the  proved  capacities  and  habits  of  the  subconscious. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  the  subconscious  may  be  the  vehicle 
for  the  transmitting  supernormal  knowledge.  It  may  be  the  med¬ 
ium  beween  the  transcendental  world,  if  there  be  such  a  thing,  and 
the  physical  world,  and  so  may  respond  to  stimuli  from  both 
sources.  This  view  of  the  subconscious  makes  it  the  medium  or 
vehicle  for  the  acquisition  of  supernormal  knowledge;  the  only 
refuge  of  the  skeptic  is  to  deny  the  source  of  the  contents  claimed 
to  be  supernormal.  If  he  proves  that  the  contents  have  been  sub- 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE 


6i 


consciously  acquired  from  normal  experience,  he  can  disqualify 
the  evidence  for  the  supernormal.  In  fact  it  is  contents  that  must 
furnish  the  evidence.  No  assumption  or  discussion  of  the  powers 
of  the  subliminal  will  decide  the  matter.  If  the  phenomena  are 
not  traceable  to  physical  stimuli,  their  explanation  must  be  sought 
in  the  transcendental.  The  conditions  under  which  the  facts  oc¬ 
cur  can  alone  decide  the  question,  not  the  assumed  or  proved  func¬ 
tions  of  the  mind,  conscious  or  subconscious. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  we  have  to  define  carefully  what  we 
mean  by  the  subconscious  before  we  employ  it  as  an  explanation 
of  the  alleged  supernormal.  The  believer  in  the  supernormal  has 
to  prove  that  the  normal  senses  were  not  the  source  or  vehicle  of 
the  facts.  The  conditions  under  which  the  phenomena  occur  will 
determine  this.  The  appeal  to  the  subconscious  will  be  irrelevant 
unless  previous  normal  experience  accounts  for  the  special  facts 
Avhich  appear  to  be  supernormal.  If  these  facts  are  based  on  such 
experience  the  claims  for  the  supernormal  are  vitiated. 

All  this  is  perhaps  obvious  to  most  people;  but  I  thought  it  was 
necessary  carefully  to  analyze  the  problem.  We  now  have  made 
it  clear  that  when  conscious  fraud  has  been  eliminated,  we  have 
still  to  test  the  claim  of  any  alleged  supernormal  phenomenon, 
such  as  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  apparitions,  mediumistic  communi¬ 
cations  with  the  dead,  and  dousing,  by  their  relation  to  the  normal 
knowledge  and  process  of  the  subject.  All  precautions  must  be 
taken  to  exclude  these  normal  processes  when  we  assert  that  we 
have  a  transcendental  fact  to  be  explained.  Proximity  in  time  or 
space  of  the  subject  to  the  fact  supernormally  known  may  raise 
doubts  of  its  authenticity,  though  these  can  be  settled  by  a  number 
of  conditions.  But  great  distance  in  time  and  space  and  all  the 
conditions  that  will  exclude  previous  normal  knowledge  by  the 
subject  will  make  an  appeal  to  subliminal  memories  of  doubtful 
value.  The  use  of  strangers  and  the  employment  of  controlled  ex¬ 
periments  will  dislodge  the  doubts  attachable  to  spontaneous  phe¬ 
nomena,  and  will  easily  disprove  the  presumption  of  subconscious 
influences,  especially  when  the  facts  are  provably  unknown  by  the 
subject. 

But  assume  that  we  have  eliminated  the  subconscious  from  the 


I 


62 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


explanation  of  the  facts.  The  exclusion  of  subconscious  influences 
will  not  prove  that  each  individual  phenomenon  is  genuine.  There 
are  still  the  possibilities  of  chance  coincidence,  or  guessing.  This, 
however,  can  easily  be  eliminated  by  any  intelligent  person.  Bring 
two  strangers  together,  and  record  what  happens.  Let  A  be  the 
psychic  and  B  the  sitter.  If  A,  without  knowing  the  person  pres¬ 
ent,  without  questions,  without  even  seeing  the  person,  who  may 
have  come  for  the  first  time  from  the  other  side  of  the  globe, 
should  give  the  sitter’s  name,  state  that  he  was  a  diamond  miner, 
that  his  father’s  name  was  Chelmsford  and  that  both  his  father 
and  mother  were  dead,  that  the  mother  had  given  him  a  special 
picture  of  a  little  church  on  the  corner  of  the  street  opposite  their 
home  —  if  these  incidents  should  occur  under  such  circumstances, 
we  should  have  facts  that  would  at  least  appear  to  exclude  chance 
and  guessing.  Indeed  it  is  easy  to  eliminate  the  supposition  of 
coincidence  by  repeating  the  experiments.  They  may  be  exposed, 
though  hardly  in  the  present  supposed  circumstances,  to  the  sus¬ 
picion  of  fraud  and  subconscious  knowledge;  but  they  are  not 
explicable  by  chance  coincidence  or  guessing.  Nevertheless  we 
have  always  to  think  of  these  possibilities  in  estimating  the  value 
of  the  facts  purporting  to  be  supernormal.  Isolated  instances  of 
these  facts  may  be  explained  by  chance  or  guessing,  but  a  large 
collective  mass  of  them,  such  as  have  appeared  in  the  publications 
of  the  Societies  for  Psychical  Research,  cannot  be  so  explained. 

The  four  objections  previously  mentioned  are  the  four  most  usual 
objections  to  belief  in  supernormal  experience.  We  may,  perhaps, 
regard  secondary  personality  as  a  fifth.  But  secondary  or  mul¬ 
tiple  personality  is  only  an  organized  form  of  subconscious  action. 
Ordinary  subconscious  actions  are  isolated  and  do  not  represent 
another  person  in  their  collective  meaning.  But  the  secondary  per¬ 
sonality  presents  all  the  appearance  of  a  complete  and  different  self. 
Illustrations  of  this  are  the  Ansel  Bourne,  the  Charles  Brewin, 
the  Sally  Beauchamp,  and  the  Wilson  cases.  I  might  add,  too,  the 
French  cases,  those  of  Lucie  and  Leonie.  In  them  the  person 
went  into  states  resembling  hypnosis,  as  completely  separated  from 
the  normal  personality  as  another  human  being  would  be.  The 
normal  self  did  not  remember  anything  about  the  subnormal  self. 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE  63 

though  in  some  cases  the  secondary  personality  was  aware  of  the 
primary  self  as  another  person.  In  others  the  amnesia  was  com¬ 
plete  on  both  sides.  When  any  phenomena  purporting  to  be  spirit¬ 
istic  can  be  explained  by  dual  or  multiple  personality,  we  have  to 
exclude  the  hypothesis  of  spirits  from  the  explanation.  Other 
forms  of  the  supernormal  are  not  connected  with  secondary  per¬ 
sonality,  or  if  connected  with  it,  are  not  explicable  by  it.  Many, 
perhaps  most,  cases  of  secondary  personality  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  question  of  the  existence  of  spirits.  Sometimes  the  claim 
is  made  of  spirit  agency;  but  if  the  contents  of  the  subject’s  state¬ 
ments  could  be  obtained  by  normal  experience,  the  hypothesis  of 
spirits  is  not  legitimate.  Any  objection  to  spiritistic  claims  based 
on  this  form  of  phenomena  is  but  an  application  of  the  explanation 
by  subconscious  influences,  and  we  need  to  mention  the  fact  only 
because  it  is  not  generally  understood  that  dual  personality  is  an 
example  of  the  subconscious  mind. 

But  we  have  not  decided  the  case  in  behalf  of  the  supernormal 
when  we  have  excluded  fraud,  chance,  and  guessing,  subconscious 
action,  secondary  personality,  hysteria  and  forms  of  insanity.  We 
do,  however,  establish  the  possibility  of  it  when  we  have  excluded 
them;  its  proof  thereafter  depends  on  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
positive  evidence.  The  exclusion  of  alternative  explanation  is  only 
negative  evidence;  the  possession  of  certain  facts  relevant  to  the 
kind  of  process  supposed  is  required  for  positive  evidence. 

We  may  indeed  prove  dousing,  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  telekinesis, 
and  perhaps  some  other  forms  of  the  supernormal  without  admit¬ 
ting  the  existence  of  the  discarnate;  these  facts  may  even  be  used 
in  opposing  spiritistic  theories,  as  in  the  case  of  telepathy,  which 
has  been  invoked  to  displace  spiritistic  interpretations.  So  long  as 
it  is  conceivably  applicable  to  the  phenomena,  it  will  stand  as  an 
objection  to  the  hypothesis  of  spirits.  When  coincidence  between 
the  thoughts  of  two  persons  can  account  for  the  facts  without 
the  assumption  of  the  personal  identity  of  the  dead,  the  hypothesis 
of  telepathy  is  an  objection  to  the  application  of  spiritistic  explana¬ 
tions.  Telepathy,  therefore,  has  the  force  of  an  objection  in  cer¬ 
tain  cases.  The  facts  taken  as  evidence  for  spirits  must  run  the 
gauntlet  of  all  the  previous  objections  named,  whether  these  objec- 


64  CONTACT'  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

tions  take  the  form  of  normal  or  supernormal  explanations. 
Spiritistic  evidence  consists  of  facts  which  can  be  explained  only 
by  the  continued  personal  identity  of  deceased  persons,  involving 
memories  possessed  by  the  deceased  person  and  transmitted  to  the 
living  by  supernormal  means.  That  is,  we  cannot  believe  in  the 
existence  of  spirits  until  they  are  able  to  prove  their  personal  iden¬ 
tity,  their  conscious  memory,  by  transmitting  facts  of  their  ter¬ 
restrial  lives  to  the  living  by  apparitions,  mediums,  telekinesis,  or 
some  other  supernormal  method. 

The  one  best  means  of  proving  this  personal  identity  is  the  trans¬ 
mission  of  facts,  for  these  are  least  likely  to  be  referable  to  normal 
channels  of  knowledge.  The  more  trivial  the  better;  that  is,  the 
more  likely  to  characterize  the  one  person  whose  identity  is  con¬ 
cerned.  A  single  trivial  incident  will  not  suffice.  There  must  be 
a  number  of  them  which  articulate  rightly  and  have  had  a  psycho¬ 
logical  or  other  interest  for  the  person  claiming  to  communicate. 
If  a  man  should  enumerate  the  books  he  had  written,  the  statement 
would  have  no  value  at  all,  as  it  would  be  obtainable  from  the 
normal  knowledge  of  the  psychic  or  person  offering  it  as  evidence. 
The  man’s  important  deeds  or  the  conspicuous  events  of  his  life  are 
worthless  as  evidence  of  his  survival,  unless  you  can  prove  they 
were  not  known  to  the  psychic.  It  is  more  difficult  to  prove  ig¬ 
norance  of  these  events  than  of  private  and  trivial  facts  of  his 
career.  Trivial  incidents  are  the  best  evidence  of  identity.  The 
ridicule  applied  to  the  triviality  of  communications  from  the  dead 
is  therefore  unjustified. 

The  reason  why  most  people  object  to  the  triviality  of  the  facts 
adduced  is  that  they  assume  that  these  communications  indicate  the 
character  of  life  in  the  spiritual  world.  But  in  proving  the  existence 
of  spirits  we  are  not  concerned  about  their  status  or  life  in  the 
transcendental  world.  We  are  not  investigating  that  problem. 
We  are  trying  to  prove  that  spirits  exist,  not  that  they  are  wise  or 
exalted  in  their  intelligence ;  and  the  materialistic  theory  itself  pre¬ 
scribes  for  us,  as  we  have  seen,  the  nature  of  the  problem  and  of 
the  evidence  for  its  solution.  We  have  long  been  taught  that  the 
next  life  is  an  idyllic  one,  a  life  which  throws  off  the  limitations 
of  the  present.  This  may  be  true  or  it  may  not  be  true.  With 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  EVIDENCE  65 

that  question  vve  have  no  concern  in  the  scientific  problem  of  a 
spiritual  existence.  We  are  trying  totascertain  whether  conscious¬ 
ness  survives,  not  whether  it  is  transcendentally  exalted  in  intel¬ 
ligence  or  placed  in  an  ideal  world.  Materialism  makes  it  neces¬ 
sary  to  prove  the  survival  of  personal  identity  as  the  condition  of 
any  spiritual  existence  at  all.  Nothing  but  trivial  facts  will  prove 
this;  they  are  not  brought  forward  as  evidence  in  any  respect  of 
the  spirit’s  intelligence. 

The  popular  objections  to  triviality  in  the  evidence  explains  why 
so  many  run  after  revelations  of  the  nature  of  the  future  life. 
They  suppose  that,  if  communication  between  the  spiritual  and  the 
physical  world  is  possible  at  all,  all  sorts  of  revelations  and  com¬ 
munications  about  it  are  accessible.  But  no  revelation  of  such  a 
world  can  be  evidence  of  its  existence,  unless  verifiable  by  methods 
which  will  show  that  it  is  trustworthy.  Thousands  accept  such 
revelations  as  evidence  and  pay  no  attention  to  trivial  facts  in 
proof  of  identity  or  scientific  methods  of  investigation  and  criticism. 
They  are  only  preparing  to  be  deceived.  Verification  is  an  im¬ 
portant  feature  of  evidence,  and  verification  is  possible  only  by  the 
testimony  of  the  living  or  by  a  vast  system  of  cross  references  and 
repetitions  of  messages  impossible  now  to  carry  out.  In  proving 
identity,  especially  if  we  wish  to  exclude  telepathy  from  the  explana¬ 
tion,  we  must  not  only  have  trivial  facts  of  a  supernormal  kind  and 
illustrative  of  personal  identity,  but  they  must  be  verified  by  living 
people.  This  connects  the  past  personality  with  a  present  con¬ 
sciousness  and  readily  verifies  the  statement  of  the  psychic.  But 
any  fact  which  cannot  be  verified  by  a  living  person  is  not  worth  a 
penny  as  evidence.  Revelations  are  not  verifiable  by  individual 
testimony  of  living  people  and  occupy  no  place  whatever  in  the  scien¬ 
tific  problem  as  affecting  the  existence  of  spirits. 

Telekinesis,  or  movement  of  physical  objects  without  contact, 
is  usually  regarded  as  conclusive  evidence  of  the  existence  of  spirits; 
but,  in  reality,  it  is  not  evidence  of  it  at  all.  Only  mental  phenom¬ 
ena  will  prove  the  existence  of  spirits.  Physical  phenomena  unac- 
companied  by  mental  phenomena  showing  intelligence  or  personal 
identity  are  absolutely  worthless  as  evidence.  They  may  be  very 
interesting  phenomena,  and  they  may  arouse  the  lethargic  physicist 


66  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


to  revise  some  of  his  previous  views,  but  they  cannot  be  adduced  in 
evidence  of  spirits  until  the  existence  of  the  latter  has  been  other¬ 
wise  proved  and  their  association  with  telekinesis  also  proved. 

This  examination  of  evidential  problems  in  general  prepares  the 
way  for  a  consideration  of  the  facts  adduced  in  proof  of  the  super¬ 
normal  and  of  the  existence  of  spirits.  We  have  only  been  out¬ 
lining  problems  here  and  showing  how  complicated  are  the  condi¬ 
tions  necessary  to  the  admission  of  any  supernormal  experiences 
whatever  and  especially  the  existence  of  discamate  spirits  — 
though  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  ought  to  be  easier,  in  the  light 
of  the  facts  on  record,  to  admit  the  existence  of  spirits  than  to 
admit  the  claims  of  telepathy.  But  with  that  question  we  have 
nothing  to  do  at  present.  We  have  been  concerned  with  determin¬ 
ing  the  principles  of  evidence  in  any  field  and  the  special  conditions 
which  affect  it  in  psychic  research.  We  have  excluded  fraud,  sub¬ 
conscious  mental  action,  secondary  personality,  chance  coincidence, 
guessing,  hysteria  and  other  kindred  phenomena  as  explanations  of 
the  apparently  supernormal;  we  have  then  excluded  several  types  of 
the  supernormal  from  the  evidence  for  discamate  spirits.  Posi¬ 
tive  evidence  for  the  discamate  we  have  shown  to  be  supernormal 
knowledge  indicating  the  continued  personal  identity  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  VII 
HUMAN  PERSONALITY 


There  are  three  distinct  meanings  for  the  term  “  per¬ 
sonality,”  two  of  them  general  and  popular  and  the  third 
technical  and  philosophical.  The  Urst  and  most  general 
meaning  is  that  personality  is  the  sum  of  the  characteristics  which 
make  up  physical  and  mental  being.  These  include  appearance, 
manners,  habits,  tastes  and  moral  character.  The  second  meaning 
emphasizes  the  characteristics  that  distinguish  one  person  from  an¬ 
other.  The  two  meanings  overlap  or  merge  into  each  other,  as 
the  first  considers  all  characteristics  pertaining  to  the  individual, 
without  comparing  him  with  others,  while  the  second  sees  the 
same  facts  in  relation  to  the  outside  world  and  fixes  attention 
mainly  upon  the  features  that  distinguish  the  subject  from  his 
fellows.  This  second  meaning  is  equivalent  to  individuality.  It 
represents  a  widely  prevalent  conception  of  the  term. 

But  the  third  meaning  is  the  most  important,  and  is  the  only  con¬ 
ception  of  any  value  to  the  psychic  researcher  and  the  philosopher 
or  psychologist.  This  conception  of  personality  is  concerned  only 
with  mental  characteristics;  it  makes  no  distinction  between  com¬ 
mon  and  specific  marks.  In  fact  it  connotes  mental  processes  rather 
than  fixed  qualities.  The  capacity  for  having  mental  states,  or  the 
fact  of  having  them,  constitutes  personality  for  the  psychologist  and 
the  philosopher.  Personality  is  thus  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
regardless  of  the  question  whether  any  special  state  is  constant  or 
casual,  essential  or  unessential.  Physical  marks  will  have  no  place 
in  this  conception,  unless  they  may  serve  as  symbols  of  mental 
states.  It  abstracts  from  them  and  denotes  only  the  stream  of  men¬ 
tal  phenomena. 

This  third  meaning  is  so  radically  different  from  the  other  two 
that  it  gives  rise  to  perpetual  misunderstandings  between  the 
philosopher  and  the  public.  These  misunderstandings  arise  par¬ 
ticularly  in  the  discussion  of  survival  after  death.  The  layman, 

67 


68  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

with  his  conception  of  personality,  looks  for  physical  phenomena  of 
some  kind  to  illustrate  or  prove  it.  Consequently,  if  interested  in 
psychic  phenomena  at  all,  he  prefers  materialization,  which  best 
satisfies  his  conception  of  personality.  He  cannot  take  the  point 
of  view  of  the  psychologist  or  the  philosopher,  who  neglects  these 
purely  sensory  characteristics,  and  fixes  his  attention  on  mental 
states  as  the  proper  conception  of  the  personality  v,'hich  may  sur¬ 
vive.  Alaterializaticn  would  supply  the  very  characteristics  which 
the  layman  fixes  upon  to  represent  personality.  But  precisely  the 
fact  that  mental  states  are  not  presented  to  sense,  leads  the  philos¬ 
opher  to  conceive  of  immortality  as  possible. 

If  the  layman’s  conception  were  correct  the  philosopher  and  psy¬ 
chologist  would  deny  the  possibility  of  survival  with  entire  confi¬ 
dence,  as  a  necessary  implication  of  bodily  dissolution.  The  day 
could  be  saved  only  by  the  doctrine  of  a  “  spiritual  bod}^”  an 
“  astral  body,”  or  an  ”  ethereal  organism,”  supposedly  a  replica  of 
the  physical  organism  in  its  spatial  and  other  characteristics.  These 
represent  personality  after  the  manner  or  analogy  of  the  physical 
body.  The  real  spirit  may  indeed  have  a  transcendental  bodily 
form;  but  the  stream  of  consciousness  remains  the  same  whether 
there  is  any  “  spiritual  body  ”  or  “  ethereal  organism  ”  or  not. 
This  is  the  fundamental  element  in  all  conceptions  of  spiritual  real¬ 
ity.  It  is  not  necessary  to  decide  the  question  of  a  ”  spiritual  body  ” 
or  “  ethereal  organism  ”  as  the  condition  of  believing  in  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirits.  That  is  another  and  perhaps  a  secondary  problem. 
WTat  we  need  to  knoAv  is,  whether  the  stream  Of  consciousness 
survives,  whether  the  personal  memory  continues,  not  how  it  con¬ 
tinues.  The  fact  of  survival  is  to  be  considered  first  and  the 
condition  of  it  afterwards. 

We  have  to  determine  the  survival  of  personality  in  the  same 
way  that  we  determine  whether  another  person  in  the  body  is  con¬ 
scious.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  think  that  we  have  direct  knowl¬ 
edge  of  other  personalities,  that  we  forget  the  exceedingly  compli¬ 
cated  nature  of  the  process  of  ascertaining  whether  other  people 
are  conscious.  That  this  process  is  the  same  as  that  of  ascertain¬ 
ing  the  existence  of  discarnate  spirits  will  be  apparent  from  the 
following  considerations : 


HUMAN  PERSONALITY 


69 

j.  1  have  direct  knowledge  of  my  own  existence  both  bodily  and 
mental.  I  reach  knowledge  of  my  body  by  sensation  and  of  my 
mental  states  by  introspection.  In  fact,  introspection  is  at  the  basis 
of  my  consciousness  of  bodily  as  well  as  mental  existence.  In 
both  cases  my  knowledge  of  my  own  existence  is  direct  and  is  not 
a  matter  of  inference  from  facts  which  are  capable  of  various  in¬ 
terpretations. 

2.  I  have  no  direct  knowledge  of  any  other  consciousness  in  the 
world  than  my  own.  I  have  knowledge  of  other  bodies  only 
through  my  interpretation  of  sensations,  and  I  have  no  direct  knowl¬ 
edge  that  consciousness  inhabits  those  bodies.  I  have  to  ascertain 
that  fact  by  inference  from  certain  phenomena  occurring  in  con¬ 
junction  with  those  bodies;  for  instance,  behavior  that  seems  to 
indicate  in  others  the  same  kind  of  mental  states  as  those  behind  my 
own  acts.  I  observe  certain  motor  or  muscular  phenomena  pre¬ 
cisely  like  my  own,  and  I  infer  the  same  cause  for  them. 

3.  Death  is  only  slightly  different  from  paralysis  or  catalepsy. 
It  involves  the  permanent  lapse  of  consciousness,  so  far  as  our 
normal  observation  is  concerned.  In  time  the  body  also  ceases  to 
function  and  is  dissolved.  The  materialist  assumes  that  personality 
or  consciousness  disappears  with  it  and  can  never  reappear.  Be¬ 
lieving,  as  he  does,  that  personality  is  a  function  of  the  organism, 
he  consistently  assumes  that  it  does  not  e.xist  after  the  death  of 
the  body.  But  he  does  not  know  directly  that  this  is  a  fact.  He 
never  saw  personality,  nor  have  any  of  us  seen  it,  as  we  see  our  own 
bodies  or  the  bodies  of  others ;  and  the  materialist  assumes  that 
the  only  way  to  know  anything  directly  is  through  sense-perception. 
In  catalepsy  and  paralysis  personality  or  consciousness  seems  to  have 
disappeared.  The  recovery  of  normal  consciousness  in  such  cases 
shows  that  there  it  suffered  only  a  lapse;  followed  by  the  resump¬ 
tion  of  organic  functions.  But  there  is  no  such  resumption  of 
functions  after  death,  and  the  materialist  therefore  concludes  that 
consciousness  has  become  non-e.xistent,  like  digestion,  circulation, 
secretion  and  other  functions  of  the  organism.  These  undoubtedly 
disappear  never  to  reappear;  and,  if  personality  is  a  similar  func¬ 
tion  of  the  body,  it  too  must  disappear.  Since  w’e  have  no  direct 
knowledge  of  this  personality  in  others,  even  in  life,  and  since  we 


70 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


cannot  from  normal  experience  infer  its  continued  existence  after 
death,  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  facts  derived  from  abnormal  con¬ 
ditions  or  processes  different  from  sensory  experience,  if  we  are 
to  infer  its  survival. 

Now  psychic  research  is  occupied  with  the  effort  to  find  facts 
from  which  we  can  infer  the  survival  of  personality.  So  we  have 
seen  in  the  previous  chapter,  fraud,  subconscious  actions,  chance 
coincidence,  guessing,  and  telepathy  must  be  excluded  as  explana¬ 
tions  before  we  can  accept  this  evidence  for  survival.  Assuming 
that  this  exclusion  has  been  effected  in  any  case,  as  in  veridical  ap¬ 
paritions  and  test  mediumistic  phenomena,  we  can  only  infer  that 
personality  has  continued  to  exist  after  death,  as  it  existed  in 
paralysis  and  catalepsy  when  we  had  supposed  it  destroyed.  Death 
has  interrupted  its  causal  action  in  the  world;  therefore,  unless  at 
some  point  it  can  resume  that  causal  action  on  or  through  the  liv¬ 
ing,  we  should  have  to  remain  without  scientific  evidence  for  its 
continuance  after  death. 

To  summarize  the  argument :  ( i )  We  know  personality  or  con¬ 

sciousness  directly  or  introspectively  only  in  ourselves.  (2)  We 
know  the  existence  of  personality  or  consciousness  in  others  only 
indirectly  or  by  inference  from  behavior  manifested  in  some  form 
of  action.  (3)  Catalepsy  and  paralysis  in  some  cases  involve  a 
disappearance  of  personality  similar  to  that  of  death,  but  its  re¬ 
appearance  shows  that  it  was  still  present  when  it  was  supposed  to 
be  non-existent.  (4)  Death  offers  a  situation  only  slightly  differ¬ 
ent  from  that  of  catalepsy  and  paralysis.  Consciousness  ceases  to 
function,  and  we  should  remain  in  total  ignorance  of  its  con¬ 
tinued  existence,  unless  we  ascertain  facts  which  necessitate  the 
inference  of  its  persistence. 

It  is  the  stream  of  consciousness  that  is  of  primary  importance 
in  the  question  of  survival.  There  might  be  “  spiritual  bodies,” 
“astral  bodies,”  or  “ethereal  organisms”  without  personality;  it 
only  defers  the  real  problem  to  assume  or  prove  their  existence. 
Ultimately  we  are  driven  to  the  discovery  of  facts  which  will  prove 
the  continuance  of  personality  as  a  stream  of  consciousness,  by  the 
method  here  used  —  namely,  the  isolation  of  consciousness  from 
the  body  or  the  production  of  facts  from  which  an  inference  can  be 


HUMAN  PERSONALITY 


71 

drawn  that  this  personality  has  persisted  beyond  death  and  is  not 
a  function  of  the  physical  body. 

If  there  is  anything  at  all  perplexing  about  personality,  the  per¬ 
plexity  lies  in  the  consideration  of  “  split  personality,”  “  alternations 
of  personality,”  “  secondary  personality,”  “  dual  personality  ”  or 
“  multiple  personality,”  all  of  which  are  interchangeable  terms.  In 
former  times,  the  personality  or  soul  was  held  to  be  an  indivisible 
unit.  In  its  early  history  the  dogma  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
was  based  upon  this  unity.  For  so  long  as  the  soul  was  believed  to 
be  indivisible  its  survival  was  assured,  under  the  doctrine  of  the 
imperishability  of  the  atoms  or  elements.  But  if  consciousness  is 
after  all  divisible  into  several  selves,  the  argument  for  its  immor¬ 
tality  from  its  unity  falls  to  the  ground. 

I  shall  not  undertake  at  this  juncture  to  solve  the  problem.  I 
am  here  only  explaining  the  perplexity  which  the  alternation  of 
personality  offers  to  those  who  have  based  their  belief  in  survival 
upon  the  unity  of  consciousness.  What  we  must  do  is  to  prove  sur¬ 
vival  independently  of  the  question  whether  personality  is  simple 
and  indivisible  or  not.  It  might  be  as  complex  in  a  spiritual  world 
as  it  is  here.  Metaphysics  will  not  settle  the  matter.  We  must 
have  argument  based  on  proved  facts,  not  on  mere  beliefs.  The 
appeal  to  the  unity  of  personality  affected  only  those  who  were 
bred  in  the  old  metaphysics,  before  the  establishment  of  scientific 
method.  In  any  case  the  problem  of  survival  after  death  must 
depend  on  the  question  of  fact,  not  on  the  nature  of  personality  as 
conceived  by  traditional  metaphysics. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


TELEPATHY 

Telepathy  is  a  process  now  very  widely  assumed  as  an 
alternative  to  the  spiritistic  hypothesis.  It  is  more  or 
less  synonymous  with  “  mind  reading  ”  or  “  thought  trans¬ 
ference,”  which  were  the  expressions  in  use  before  the  more  tech¬ 
nical  term  was  coined  and  adopted.  It  would  have  had  little  or 
no  recognition  if  it  had  not  been  useful  in  displacing  the  supposi¬ 
tion  of  spirits  in  the  interpretation  of  certain  phenomena. 

It  was  a  group  of  spontaneous  experiences,  called  “  mind-read¬ 
ing,”  which  attracted  the  attention  of  investigators.  But  most 
people  used  the  expression  to  mean  more  than  the  facts  justified. 
They  assumed  some  supernormal  ability  to  read  the  mind  without 
the  use  of  normal  sense-perception  and  interpretation.  That  is, 
they  made  the  phenomena  more  unusual  and  exceptional  than  they 
were,  or  at  least  more  evidential  than  they  actually  were.  The 
exhibitions  of  Cumberland  and  Bishop,  as  well  as  of  persons  imitat¬ 
ing  them,  can  be  explained  as  muscle-reading.  It  is  necessary  to 
discriminate  between  unusually  delicate  sensations,  and  the  impart¬ 
ing  of  knowledge  without  any  sense-perception.  Muscle-reading 
depends  on  detecting  unconscious  acts  of  a  person  by  a  performer, 
and  any  conditions  of  contact  that  make  muscle-reading  possible 
under  the  circumstances  discredits  the  phenomena  as  evidence  for 
anything  more.  Muscle-reading  may  be  defined  as  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  by  the  operator  of  unconscious  muscular  movements  in  the 
subject  experimented  on.  It  is  evident  therefore  that  phenomena 
referable  to  it  are  not  evidence  of  any  agency  transcending  sense- 
perception. 

The  term  telepathy  was  coined  to  express  exactly  and  technically 
this  transmission  of  thought  from  one  mind  to  another  without 
sensory  perception  even  of  the  hyperaesthetic  type.  Whether  such 
transmission  actually  exists  was  yet  to  be  proved;  hence  the  term 

72 


TELEPATHY 


73 

represented  only  an  hypothesis,  not  a  demonstrated  fact.  It  was 
meant  to  exclude  every  form  of  sense-perception  including  the  sub¬ 
conscious.  It  might  be  easy  to  exclude  conscious  sense-perception, 
even  hyperaesthesia,  but  it  was  not  so  easy  to  exclude  subliminal 
sensibility.  There  was  abundant  evidence  that  subconsciously  per¬ 
ceived  stimuli  existed.  But  we  had  to  suppose  that  even  subliminal 
perceptions  were  excluded  from  anything  called  telepathy;  and 
the  stimulus  must  be  mere  thought  on  the  part  of  the  sender,  or 
agent.  As  thought  is  not  a  physical  stimulus,  any  reception  of  it 
by  another  person  could  be  said  to  be  a  phenomenon  not  involving 
normal  sense-perception  or  even  the  interpretation  of  unconscious 
sensory  stimuli. 

It  is  very  important  to  take  all  these  facts  into  account,  because 
the  term  telepathy  has  been  very  widely  used  to  denote  a  process 
that  would  explain  much  more  than  the  phenomena  which  it  was 
coined  merely  to  describe.  The  founders  of  the  English  Society 
defined  the  term  as  the  “  transmission  of  thought  independently  of 
the  recognized  channels  of  sense.”  I  have  preferred  to  define  tele¬ 
pathy  as  “  coincidence,  excluding  normal  sense-perception,  between 
the  thoughts  of  two  minds.”  There  is  no  essential  difference  be¬ 
tween  this  definition  and  that  by  the  English  Society.  The  original 
founders  of  the  Society  probably  did  not  intend  that  the  term 
should  imply  or  express  a  definite  process  of  explanation;  but  the 
use  of  the  term  “  transmission  ”  and  the  assumption,  at  least  for 
scientific  cautiousness,  that  this  “  transmission  ”  was  a  direct  pro¬ 
cess  between  living  minds  and  not  in  any  way  connected  with  the 
action  of  spirits,  soon  gave  the  term  an  implication  which  it  did 
not  originally  have.  Ail  that  we  strictly  know  is  that  A’s  thought 
gets  into  the  mind  of  B,  without  reference  to  the  process  by  which 
this  effect  was  brought  about.  We  know  only  the  fact  of  a  coin¬ 
cidence  inexplicable  by  chance  or  normal  sense-perception.  We 
have  no  reason  to  assume  that  it  is  a  process  exclusively  between 
living  people  and  not  permitting  the  intervention  of  the  dead,  if  the 
discarnate  exist  and  can  act  on  the  living. 

It  thus  became  necessary  to  define  very  exactly  the  meaning  of 
the  term  telepathy,  absolutely  excluding  either  the  evidence  or  the 
action  of  the  discarnate,  or  both,  or  else  defining  it  with  such  breadth 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


74 

as  to  include  any  undiscovered  process  of  transcendental  action  be¬ 
tween  minds  of  any  kind,  whether  incarnate  or  discarnate.  Only 
the  former  meaning  of  the  term  would  bring  it  into  rivalry  with 
the  spiritistic  theory,  while  the  latter  would  permit  the  employment 
of  the  term  to  describe  the  action  of  discarnate  as  well  as  incarnate 
minds.  There  has  been  a  growing  tendency  among  some  of  the 
members  of  the  English  Society  to  extend  the  meaning  of  the  term 
so  that  it  might  include  transmission  of  thoughts  between  the  living 
and  the  dead  and  between  different  discarnate  minds,  without  fully 
realizing  that  they  have  cut  off  the  right  to  use  the  term  as  excluding 
spiritistic  interpretations  of  any  or  all  of  the  phenomena  involving 
transcendental  transmission  of  thought. 

In  its  only  proper  meaning,  telepathy  is  a  term  to  name  facts 
which  are  not  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits,  and  it  implies 
no  explanation  whatever  of  the  facts  so  named.  The  process,  if 
we  knew  it,  might  include  a  relation  between  the  incarnate  and  the 
discarnate,  and  between  different  discarnate  minds,  if  such  exist. 
But  the  term  itself  is  only  a  name  for  facts  whose  explanation  we 
do  not  know.  The  first  object  of  the  English  Society  was  the  es¬ 
timation  of  evidence,  not  the  application  of  explanatory  hypotheses. 
Telepathy  involves  no  assumption  of  any  known  or  hypothetical 
process  to  explain  the  coincidences  cited  as  evidence  of  a  supernor¬ 
mal  relation  between  two  minds. 

The  phenomena  cited  to  prove  the  existence  of  telepathy  repre¬ 
sent  the  thoughts  of  A  and  the  simultaneous  acquisition  or  per¬ 
ception  of  them  by  B.  There  are  no  doubt  coincidences  between 
A’s  thoughts  yesterday  or  ten  years  ago  and  those  of  B  to-day  or  five 
years  ago.  But  such  coincidences  would  be  no  evidence  of 
telepathy.  But  there  has  been  a  very  marked  tendency,  even  among 
supposed  scientific  students  and  investigators,  to  extend  the  import 
of  the  term  to  include  coincidences  between  what  may  be  a  mere 
subconscious  memory  of  A  and  the  present  thought  of  B.  This 
extension  of  the  meaning  of  telepathy  has  been  adopted  as  an  ex¬ 
planation  of  apparent  spirit  communications;  that  is,  the  messages 
which  seem  to  indicate  continued  personal  existence  of  the  dead 
are  regarded  as  a  selection  from  among  the  sitter’s  subconscious 
memories,  on  the  part  of  the  medium.  But  no  evidence  whatever 


TELEPATHY 


75 

has  ever  been  produced  to  prove  that  B  can  select  memories  from 
^e  subconscious  of  A.  There  may  be,  as  I  think  there  are,  some 
coincidences  which  look  very  like  selection  from  the  subcc«scious 
rather  than  the  direct  action  of  the  agent  upon  the  percipient;  but 
these  are  too  often  complicated  with  associated  incidents  indicative 
of  spirit  agencies,  to  be  disposed  of  as  selective  telepathy  from  the 
subconscious. 

Mediumistic  phenomena  too  often  suggest  the  action  of  spirits, 
to  be  cited  as  direct  evidence  for  telepathy.  The  possibility  of 
telepathy  is  only  a  ground  for  disqualifying  an  incident  as  evidence 
for  the  existence  of  spirits;  but  the  fact  that  it  is  a  possible  alter¬ 
native  explanation  is  no  proof  that  is  the  correct  explanation.  The 
possibility  of  spirits  and  the  fact  that  an  incident  is  appropriate  to 
illustrate  the  personal  identity  of  a  deceased  person  forbids  using 
it  as  positive  evidence  for  telepathy.  One  can  only  insist  that  one 
theory  is  as  good  as  the  other  to  account  for  the  facts.  The  possi¬ 
bility  of  telepathy  in  the  case  may  nullify  the  value  of  the  fact  as 
evidence  for  spirits,  but  it  does  not  exclude  the  hypothetical  ex¬ 
planation  of  the  fact  by  spirits,  if  the  incident  involves  a  proved 
memory  of  a  deceased  person.  But  when  facts  arise  which  both 
indicate  the  continued  personal  identity  of  the  dead  and  are  not 
explicable  by  telepathy,  the  spiritistic  theory  must  be  conceded. 

Of  course,  the  believer  in  telepathy  replies  that  the  proof  for 
spirits  has  not  been  given  and  that  telepathy  still  has  the  right  of 
preference  as  a  theory.  But  in  order  to  make  telepathy  applicable 
to  the  facts,  its  defenders  have  unwarrantably  extended  its  meaning. 
At  first  it  was  limited  to  the  present  active  states  of  the  agent  and 
the  percipient;  that  is,  the  present  thoughts  of  A  were  received 
by  B.  Then,  in  order  to  avoid  the  acceptance  of  spiritism,  its  op¬ 
ponents  invented,  but  did  not  prove,  a  selective  telepathy.  The 
meaning  of  the  term  was  altered  and  extended  to  mean  the  selec¬ 
tion  by  B  from  the  subconscious  of  A,  of  the  facts  necessary  to 
impersonate  the  deceased  C.  This  selective  process  has  not  in  any 
case  been  proved.  But  even  the  hypothesis  of  such  telepathy  is 
excluded  when  facts  are  obtained  which  B  does  not  know  about 
C,  but  which  are  verifiable  from  the  mind  of  D,  who  is  not  present 
Hence,  when  one  finds  an  incident  that  excludes  both  ordinar} 


76  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

telepatliy  with  the  normal  consciousness  and  selective  telepatliy 
with  the  subliminal  consciousness  of  the  person  present,  one  must 
either  abandon  telepathy  as  an  explanation  or  extend  the  meaning 
of  the  term  to  include  selection  from  the  mind  of  the  absent  D. 

This  sort  of  telepathy  has  been  supposed,  but  no  evidence  has 
been  adduced  for  it,  and  I  do  not  see  how  it  would  be  possible  to 
adduce  such  evidence.  Every  extension  of  the  term  beyond  coin¬ 
cidences  between  the  mental  states  of  two  persons  is  wholly  with¬ 
out  warrant.  The  introduction  of  the  assumption  that  this  coinci¬ 
dence  is  due  to  a  direct  transmission  from  one  living  mind  to 
another  has  never  been  justified,  and  as  there  is  no  known  process 
whatever  associated  with  the  coincidences,  we  are  permitted  to  use 
the  term  only  in  a  descriptive,  not  in  an  explanatory  sense. 

An  hypothesis  may  indeed  explain  facts  that  are  not  in  them¬ 
selves  evidence  of  that  hypothesis,  but  only  after  adequate  evidence 
has  already  been  adduced  for  it.  An  hypothesis  may  thus  be  ap¬ 
plied  to  facts  that  are  consistent  with  it  but  are  not  convincing 
evidence  of  it;  and  then  associated  incidents,  not  directly  explained 
by  the  main  hypothesis,  will  come  under  it  as  due  to  subsidiary 
causes  consistent  with  it.  But  telepathy  explains  nothing — cer¬ 
tainly  not  those  associated  incidents  which  might  be  due  to  spir¬ 
itistic  causes,  though  not  primary  evidence  of  them.  It  is  only  a 
discriminating  device  in  the  estimation  of  the  evidential  problem 
and  so  serves  to  postpone  the  final  judgment  of  the  case.  It  has 
no  relevance  to  those  attendant  phenomena  which  might  naturally 
follow  the  influence  of  a  transcendental  agent,  especially  on  the 
supposition  that  it  retains  its  identity, —  for  example,  constitutional 
habits  of  the  mind  and  organism  that  are  often  imitated  by  a 
medium,  sometimes  described  as  ph3'sical  impersonation  of  the 
discarnate  person.  Very  often  the  best  proof  of  identity  comes 
from  this  phenomenon,  which  bears  no  relation  to  telepathy. 

Let  me  summarize  the  position  we  have  reached  in  the  scientific 
investigation  of  unusual  phenomena ; 

I.  There  are  in  human  experience  a  large  number  of  coinci¬ 
dences  inexplicable  by  fraud,  secondary  personality  or  subconscious 
creation,  chance,  or  guessing.  This  general  statement  covers  the 
whole  field  of  psychic  research,  including  telekinesis,  or  the  move 


TELEPATHY 


77 

mcnt  of  physical  objects  without  contact,  if  wc  slightly  stretch  the 
meaning  of  the  term  coincidence.  It  includes,  regardless  of  ex¬ 
planation,  apparently  spiritistic  as  well  as  telepathic  experiences, 
and  the  phenomena  of  dousing.  Apparitions  may  be  classed  as 
either  telepathic  or  spiritistic. 

Some  explanation  of  these  coincidences  must  be  made.  The 
coincidences  are  so  numerous  and  so  well  accredited  that  no  hypoth¬ 
esis  which  does  not  go  as  far  as  telepathy  can  have  any  standing 
whatever.  But  telepathy,  if  applicable,  must  be  used  in  an  explan¬ 
atory  and  theoretical,  instead  of  in  a  descriptive,  sense.  If  telep¬ 
athy  is  supposed  to  have  powers  of  infinite  selection  and  of 
impersonation,  it  may  be  invoked  to  oppose  spiritistic  explanations. 
But  without  this  extension  of  meaning,  it  is  powerless  to  explain 
the  facts. 

The  spiritualists,  of  course,  at  the  outset  applied  the  spiritistic 
hypothesis  to  the  whole  field,  and  were  as  negligent  of  the  analysis 
of  the  problem  as  the  telepathists.  The  telepathists,  in  their  turn, 
showed  the  same  carelessness,  in  attempting  to  explain  everything 
mediumistic  by  telepathy.  Neither  party  has  fully  realized  the 
importance  of  subsidiary  circumstances  in  the  phenomena.  The 
public  assumes  that  spirits  are  beings  that  have  all  the  apparent 
properties  of  a  living  person  except  visibility  and  tangibility.  The 
scientific  man  simply  thinks  of  them  as  personal  streams  of  con¬ 
sciousness,  whatever  else  they  may  turn  out  to  be;  and  capable 
of  initiating  or  causing  events  in  the  physical  world  in  cooperation 
with  all  sorts  of  bodily  conditions  and  perhaps  transcendental  influ¬ 
ences  other  than  themselves.  The  scientific  spiritist  recognizes 
different  kinds  of  phenomena,  and  uses  the  term  spirits  only  when 
he  wishes  it  understood  that  they  are  the  chief  cause  of  the  series 
of  phenomena  manifested.  He  may  not  know  in  the  least  how  this 
cause  operates;  he  simply  treats  the  facts  as  evidence  of  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirits  and  their  undefined  causal  relation  to  the  phenomena, 
whatever  other  causes  or  complicating  circumstances  may  be 
present. 

2.  The  rigidly  scientific  man  has  not  yet  accepted  telepathy  of 
any  kind,  unless  as  a  possible  hypothesis,  which  has  to  be  eliminated 
before  the  spiritistic  theory  can  be  admitted  even  as  an  hypothesis 


78  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

But  he  well  knows,  when  he  concedes  such  a  possibility,  that  it 
implies  no  explanation  whatever  of  the  facts.  It  merely  classifies 
them  as  inexplicable  and  mysterious.  The  public  seems  not  to 
regard  them  as  mysterious  at  all,  as  it  assumes  that  telepathy  is  a 
mere  common-place,  when  in  reality  it  involves  considerations  far 
more  mysterious  to  scientific  men  than  the  spiritistic  theory  can 
possibly  be. 

3.  The  experimental  evidence  for  telepathy,  as  presented  in 
the  publications  of  the  English  Society,  is  still  under  dispute  by 
scientific  men,  and  some  of  its  best  data  have  apparently  been 
discredited.  I  myself  am  not  convinced  of  anything  more  than 
coincidences  excluding  chance  and  guessing,  though  I  am  willing  to 
concede  the  point  for  the  sake  of  argument.  But  there  are  many 
striking  incidents  in  the  Piper  phenomena  which,  though  not  evi¬ 
dence  to  the  continued  personal  existence  of  deceased  persons,  are 
undoubtedly  supernormal.  Similar  incidents  occur  in  the  work 
of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  Scientific  men  would  have  to  go  at  least  as 
far  as  the  admission  of  telepathy,  in  order  to  escape  the  spiritistic 
theory  in  the  explanation  of  them.  Even  if  the  experimental  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  English  Society  were  nullified,  these  incidents  would 
make  out  an  experimental  case  for  telepathy  of  some  kind.  But 
so  many  of  them  imply  the  continued  personal  identity  of  the  dead 
that  telepathy  is  by  no  means  the  obvious  explanation  o-f  them. 

4.  Whatever  real  or  alleged  evidence  there  is  for  telepathy  limits 
it  to  present  active  states  of  consciousness  between  agent  and  per¬ 
cipient.  There  is  no  scientific  evidence  for  any  of  the  following 
conceptions  of  it:  (i)  Telepathy  as  a  process  of  selecting  from 
the  contents  of  the  subconscious  of  any  person  in  the  presence  of 
the  percipient.  (2)  Telepathy  as  a  process  of  selecting  from  the 
contents  of  the  mind  of  some  distant  person  by  the  percipient  and 
constructing  these  acquired  facts  into  a  complete  simulation  of  a 
given  personality.  (3)  Telepathy  as  a  process  of  selecting  mem¬ 
ories  from  any  living  people  to  impersonate  the  dead.  (4)  Telep¬ 
athy  as  implying  the  transmission  of  the  thoughts  of  all  living 
people  to  all  others  individually,  with  the  selection  of  the  necessary 
facts  for  impersonation  from  the  sitter  present.  (5)  Telepathy 
as  involving  a  direct  process  between  agent  and  percipient.  (6) 


TELEPATHY 


79 

Telepathy  as  explanatory  in  any  sense  whatever,  implying  any 
known  cause. 

Such  unsupported  assumptions  as  these  induce  the  scientific  man 
to  neglect  the  whole  subject;  but  unless  they  can  be  sustained,  there 
can  be  no  appeal  to  telepathy  as  a  rival  of  spiritistic  hypotheses. 
There  are  facts  which  justify  entertaining  the  possibility  of  telep¬ 
athy  as  a  precaution  against  haste  in  accepting  the  spiritistic  theory, 
but  it  has  no  relevance  when  these  facts  are  incompatible  with  it, 
or  have  been  otherwise  accounted  for. 

There  is  an  interesting  tendency  of  many  minds  to  extend  the 
application  of  telepathy  until  it  coincides  with  the  reading  from 
other  minds  anything  known  by  a  living  person.  This  is  the 
fourth  type  mentioned  before.  It  includes  the  conception  also  that 
even  the  memories  or  thoughts  of  some  dead  people  could  also  be 
acquired  in  this  way  without  the  supposition  that  they  were  obtained 
from  the  dead.  Thus  as  Mr.  Smith,  who  is  living,  receives  tele- 
pathically  the  thoughts  of  all  living  people  he  has  received  the 
thoughts  of  all  dead  people  who  were  more  or  less  contemporary 
with  him  but  died  previously,  and  hence  with  them  the  thoughts 
of  all  dead  people,  prior  to  his  own  existence,  but  contemporary 
with  those  dead  from  whom  he  received  his  telepathic  impressions. 
This  theory  would  involve  access  to  the  memories  of  all  dead  people 
whatsoever  back  to  the  origin  of  the  human  race,  and  perhaps  the 
impressions  and  states  of  consciousness  of  all  animate  life! 

While  those  who  regard  telepathy  as  operative  on  any  fact 
known  by  the  living  are  not  conscious  that  they  imply  this  extension 
of  it,  the  assumption  only  awaits  formulation  to  be  recognized  as 
virtually  present.  It  means  that  no  verifiable  fact  can  be  taken 
as  evidence  of  the  discarnate,  and  that  we  should  have  to  accept 
unverifiable  facts  as  data  for  proof!  That  is,  if  telepathy  can 
reach  all  the  thoughts  of  every  living  person,  we  could  treat  as 
evidence  for  spirits  only  facts  outside  its  range  —  that  is,  facts 
not  known  by  any  living  person,  and  such  facts  could  not  be  veri¬ 
fied.  But  according  to  the  extension  of  telepathy  just  explained, 
there  are  no  unknown  facts  whatever,  as  presumably  the  thoughts 
of  all  living  people  would  have  been  telepathically  impressed  on 
every  other  living  person  and  with  them  also  all  the  thoughts  of  the 


8o  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


dead  who  impressed  their  thoughts  on  some  living  person  before 
their  death. 

Such  telepathy  needs  no  serious  consideration.  But  it  is  the 
logical  result  of  the  unverified  and  unverifiable  hypotheses  with 
which  even  psychic  researchers  play  ducks  and  drakes  with  scien¬ 
tific  method.  If  the  simplest  form  of  telepathy  is  still  a  subject 
of  doubt  for  scientific  men,  what  becomes  of  such  a  stupendous 
hypothesis  as  the  one  just  defined?  No  intelligent  man  is  called 
upon  to  take  account  of  such  extended  hypotheses  until  the  evi¬ 
dence  is  produced  that  they  are  probably  facts  or  reasonably  sup- 
posable.  Their  magnitude  itself  tells  in  favor  of  the  spiritistic 
theory,  because  the  latter  hypothesis  is  the  simplest  explanation  of 
the  facts  as  observed  and  recorded.  The  telepathy  assumed  is  both 
infinite  and  finite :  infinite  by  implication  and  finite  by  the  evidence 
of  the  facts.  The  failures  in  experiments  to  read  the  present  active 
states  of  the  agent  and  the  inability  to  verify  any  thoughts  outside 
those  states,  in  the  opinion  of  science,  is  so  finite  that  its  very  exist¬ 
ence  is  doubted,  while  the  extended  hypothesis  requires  us  to  be¬ 
lieve  in  its  infinity  without  evidence!  But  the  natural  and  perti¬ 
nent  selectiveness  of  characteristics  relevant  to  the  personal  identity 
of  deceased  persons,  and  the  absence  of  selectiveness  relevant  to 
the  identity  of  living  people;  the  mixed  success  and  error  in  the 
facts  obtained;  the  fact  that  a  pictographic  process  explains  so 
easily  the  mixture  of  success  and  error  in  many  of  the  facts;  the 
fragmentary  character  of  the  data,  with  confusion  so  easily  explica¬ 
ble  by  misinterpretation  of  stimuli  and  the  evident  rapidity  of  the 
process;  the  difficulty  in  getting  proper  names,  though  this  varies 
with  the  psychological  constitution  of  the  psychic;  the  frequently 
symbolic  nature  of  the  phenomena,  showing  intelligence  in  the  se¬ 
lection  of  them,  whereas  telepathy  is  conceived  after  mechanical 
analogies;  all  these  are  so  inconsistent  with  telepathy  in  any  form 
in  which  it  can  be  imagined,  that  no  intelligent  person  who  has 
critically  examined  and  analyzed  the  facts  would  be  tempted  to  use 
it  as  explanatory  of  the  phenomena  on  record,  though  he  might 
admit  it  as  a  convenient  term  for  distinguishing  between  types  of 
evidence  for  supernormal  experience.  As  a  name  for  the  facts, 
with  suspended  judgment  regarding  explanation,  it  is  tolerable; 


TELEPATHY 


8i 


but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  spirits  explain  certain  facts,  while 
telepathy  explains  nothing.  At  least  as  an  hypothesis,  therefore, 
the  spiritistic  theory  has  the  priority  and  the  burden  of  proof  rests 
upon  the  telepathic  theory. 


CHAPTER  IX 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY  AND  SIMILAR  PHENOMENA 

WE  have  discussed  the  meaning  of  the  term  telepathy  and 
its  elastic  applications  without  adducing  any  facts  in 
evidence  either  of  its  existence  or  of  its  explanatory 
character ;  now  it  is  time  to  ascertain  what  are  the  facts  that  have 
given  rise  to  the  conception.  They  will  still  further  elucidate  its 
meaning  and  especially  will  enable  us  to  ascertain  the  extent  to 
which  it  is  relevant  to  psychic  research.  The  facts  divide  them¬ 
selves  into  three  distinct  types,  neither  of  which  furnishes  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  discarnate  spirits. 

These  types  are:  (i)  the  spontaneous  type,  (2)  the  experi¬ 
mental  type,  and  (3)  a  mixture  of  the  spontaneous  and  the  ex¬ 
perimental  types.  The  spontaneous  type  has  two  forms:  (a) 
coincidences  between  two  persons’  thoughts,  without  reference  to 
death,  and  (b)  coincidences  connected  with  dying  persons.  In  the 
mixed  spontaneous  and  experimental  type  we  shall  find  incidents 
referring  to  the  dead,  but  not  evidence  for  survival. 

Under  the  heading  of  spontaneous  incidents  I  wish  to  adduce 
a  number  of  coincidences  between  the  thoughts  of  living  people, 
coincidences  which  bear  no  suggestion  of  discarnate  intelligence. 
They  are  usually  trivial  matters  which,  though  they  are  evidence 
of  something  unusual  and  possibly  supernormal,  cannot  be  in  any 
way  adduced  as  evidence  of  the  existence  of  spirits. 

I  must  premise  the  giving  of  incidents  with  the  statement  that 
I  am  not  attempting  to  prove  the  existence  of  telepathy,  but  only 
to  give  illustrations  of  the  kind  of  facts  which  have  been  used  to 
prove  it.  While  the  incidents  quoted  will  be  partial  proof  of  it, 
they  will  not  suffice  to  establish  so  large  a  conclusion.  If  readers 
want  scientific  proof  for  telepathy,  they  must  consult  more  elaborate 
records  than  can  be  quoted  here.  I  can  only  select  instances  that 
cannot  be  explained  as  chance  coincidence  or  normal  sense-per- 

Sa 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


83 

ception.  Whether  they  suffice  to  prove  what  is  usually  understood 
by  telepathy  may  be  debated,  but  they  do  at  least  challenge  skep¬ 
ticism  to  explain  them. 

The  first  incidents  will  be  taken  from  a  diary  kept  by  a  lady,  who 
therein  recounted  her  coincidental  experiences.  It  covers  one 
year’s  time  and  includes  164  instances.  I  can  take  only  a  few  as 
illustrations,  and  the  selection  shall  be  limited  to  cases  that  are 
wholly  without  suggestion  of  a  relation  to  the  dead.  Each  inci¬ 
dent  might  be  treated  as  a  chance  coincidence,  if  taken  alone;  it  is 
the  collective  significance  of  the  whole  number  that  is  of  interest, 
though  I  can  illustrate  what  I  mean  only  by  quoting  them,  without 
passing  judgment  on  their  value  as  proof.  The  dates  given  in  the 
diary  are  omitted. 

“  I  was  in  the  front  sitting  room  and  dared  not  go  out  of  the 
room  for  the  cold;  my  plants  were  awfully  dry,  and  hearing  E. 
[her  niece]  in  the  kitchen,  I  telepathed  her  to  bring  me  in  some 
water.  She  at  once  came  with  a  jug  full  and  asked  if  I  would 
water  the  plants.  ” 

“  My  husband  was  sitting  reading  his  newspaper  and  I  lay  on  the 
couch  thinking  of  the  young  men’s  concert  which  we  are  thinking 
of  getting  up  and  wishing  he  would  give  over  reading,  when  he 
looked  up  from  his  paper  and  asked  me  a  question  about  it.  We 
had  neither  of  us  mentioned  the  subject  before  that  day.” 

“  I  willed  very  hard  that  Mr.  Duke  should  come  here  before  12 
o’clock,  just  to  prove  I  could  bring  him.  He  came  just  before 
the  time.  My  husband  was  at  home  and  I  told  him  afterwards.” 

“  This  morning  I  was  thinking  of  Mrs.  T.  B.,  and  said  how  I 
should  like  her  to  come  in;  I  wanted  to  speak  to  her.  This  was 
at  11.30  A.  M.,  and  in  the  afternoon  she  came,  and  I  told  her  I  was 
thinking  of  her  in  the  morning,  and  she  said  she  made  up  her  mind 
to  come  while  she  was  cleaning  the  kitchen  up  in  the  morning 
after  ii  a.  m.” 

“  I  am  again  feeling  Mr.  Duke  will  call.  He  did,  before  E.  had 
finished  dusting  the  room.  I  knew  he  would.  To-night  a  rap 
came  at  the  front  door.  I  felt  it  was  a  poor  woman  named  M., 
and  I  told  Mr.  S.  it  was  and  I  would  not  see  her,  and  it  was  her. 
I  had  no  reason  for  thinking  it  was  her,  only  I  felt  it.” 


84  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  I  expect  to  hear  my  Aunt  Sarah  is  much  worse  or  has  passed 
away.  I  am  thinking  so  much  about  her  all  day.” 

On  the  next  day  the  lady  records  in  her  diary ;  “  The  feeling 

about  Aunt  is  not  so  strong  today.” 

Then  again  on  the  day  following  the  note  just  mentioned  the  lady 
writes  in  her  diary :  “  I  shall  hear  from  Mrs.  Ph.  to-day.  I  did. 

We  had  a  letter  saying  Aunt  passed  away  at  quarter  to  six  o’clock 
on  Sunday,  27th.” 

This  last  date  was  the  date  of  the  first  record  in  which  the  lady 
stated  that  she  expected  to  hear  that  the  Aunt  was  worse  or  had 
passed  away. 

“  I  felt  Mr.  Duke  would  come  this  morning,  but  he  did  not.” 
On  the  next  day  the  lady  records :  ”  Mr.  Duke  came.  I  knew 

he  was  coming  quite  well,  and  hurried  E.  to  get  my  room  done. 
He  said  he  wanted  to  come  yesterday,  but  was  too  busy,  he  could 
not  bring  it  in.” 

“  Mrs.  T.  B.  several  times  in  church  this  morning  seemed  as  if 
she  must  get  up  and  go  out,  and  I  willed  most  strongly  she  should 
not,  and  each  time  she  half  got  up  I  looked  hard  at  her  and  told 
her  telepathically  to  sit  down  again,  and  she  did.” 

“  This  afternoon  I  telepathed  to  Mr.  B.  asking  why  he  did  not 
ask  Mr.  T.  instead  of  Mr.  S.  for  a  solo  for  the  P.  S.  A.  Mr.  B. 
came  in  the  evening,  and  said  in  the  afternoon  he  very  suddenly 
thought  of  Mr.  T.  and  went  at  once  to  ask  him  if  he  would  sing, 
and  he  promised.” 

“  Mrs.  B.  promised  her  son  H.  should  bring  me  some  patterns 
from  a  shop  in  the  town  at  dinner  time,  when  he  came  out  of 
school.  He  did  not  bring  them,  and  again  at  tea-time  they  did 
not  come,  so  I  waited  until  half  past  five.  Then  I  telepathed  to 
her,  ‘  You  are  forgetting  my  patterns,  and  the  light  will  soon  be 
gone,  so  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to  see  them.’  H.  came  with  them 
at  10  minutes  past  6  o’clock,  and  said  his  mother  forgot  them  until 
half  past  5,  when  she  said,  ‘  Make  haste  or  the  light  will  be  gone, 
and  your  auntie  will  not  be  able  to  see  them.’  When  the  rap  came, 

I  said,  ‘  That  is  H.  with  the  patterns.’  ” 

“  Mr.  Duke  telepathed  to  me  at  half  past  eleven  this  morning 
that  he  should  come  in  to  see  me  in  the  afternoon,  because  it  was 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


85 

Good  Friday.  He  caine  in  as  I  thought,  and  said  at  half  past 
eleven  he  made  up  his  mind  he  would  look  in  in  the  afternoon, 
because  of  its  being  Good  Friday  next  day.  ” 

“  I  telepathed  very  strongly  to  Mrs.  J.  to  come  in  to  see  me  for 
a  minute.  I  wanted  to  speak  to  her  most  particularly.  She  came, 
saying:  ‘I  can  only  stay  a  minute.” 

“  Mr.  Duke  called  this  evening,  and  said  last  night  I  appeared 
to  him  three  or  four  times,  and  he  got  quite  vexed  at  me,  because 
I  kept  waking  him,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  be  able  to  get  rid  of  me. 
The  last  time  he  saw  me  I  was  in  bed,  as  if  ill,  my  arm  was  above 
my  head  and  I  had  on  a  turquoise  blue  jacket.  This  is  very  remark¬ 
able,  because  I  always  wear  pink  jackets,  and  had  only  the  day 
before  finished  making  myself  a  blue  one,  and  tried  it  on  to  be  sure 
it  was  all  right.  I  need  scarcely  say  Mr.  Duke  knew  nothing  what¬ 
ever  of  this.” 

Mr.  Duke  confirms  this  incident  in  all  respects,  except  that  the 
lady  did  not  “  appear  ”  to  him,  as  her  word  might  imply  a  phantasm 
of  her. 

But  there  are  164  such  incidents  and  we  need  not  quote  further. 
I  should  note,  however,  that  two  of  them  are  connected  with  sit¬ 
uations  suggestive  of  something  else  than  telepathy  between  the 
living.  One  of  them  is  a  premonition  afterward  fulfilled  and  the 
other  a  death  coincidence. 

I  next  take  an  incident  from  the  first  volume  of  “  Phantasms  of 
the  Living.”  It  also  involves  a  coincidence  apparently  without 
purpose. 

“  ‘  Brantwood,  Coniston,  October  27,  1883. 

“  ‘  I  woke  up  with  a  start,  feeling  I  had  had  a  hard  blow  on  my  mouth, 
and  with  a  distinct  sense  that  I  had  been  cut,  and  was  bleeding  under  my 
upper  lip,  and  seized  my  pocket  handkerchief,  and  held  it  (in  a  little 
pushed  lump)  to  the  part,  as  I  sat  up  in  bed,  and  after  a  few  seconds 
when  I  removed  it,  I  was  astonished  not  to  see  any  blood,  and  only  then 
realized  it  was  impossible  anything  could  have  struck  me  there,  as  I  lay 
fast  asleep  in  bed,  and  so  I  thought  it  was  only  a  dream ! —  but  I  looked  at 
my  watch,  and  saw  it  was  seven,  and  finding  Arthur,  (my  husband)  was 
not  in  the  room,  I  concluded  (rightly)  that  he  must  have  gone  out  on  the 
lake  for  an  early  sail,  as  it  was  so  fine. 

“‘I  then  fell  asleep.  At  breakfast  (half  past  nine),  Arthur  came  in 
rather  late,  and  I  noticed  he  rather  purposely  sat  farther  away  from  me 
than  usual,  and  every  now  and  then  put  his  pocket  handkerchief  furtively 


86  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

up  to  his  lip,  in  the  very  way  I  had  done.  I  said,  “  Arthur,  why  are  you 
doing  that?”  and  added  a  little  anxiously,  “I  know  you  have  hurt  your¬ 
self  !  but  I’ll  tell  you  why  afterwards.  ”  He  said,  “  Well,  I  was  sailing, 
a  sudden  squall  came,  throwing  the  tiller  suddenly  around,  and  it  struck  me 
a  bad  blow  in  the  mouth,  under  the  upper  lip,  and  it  has  been  bleeding  a 
good  deal  and  won’t  stop.  ”  I  then  said,  “  Have  you  any  idea  what  o’clock 
it  was  when  it  happened  ?  ”  and  he  answered,  “  It  must  have  been  about 
seven.” 

“  ‘  I  then  told  what  happened  to  me,  much  to  his  surprise,  and  all  who 
were  with  us  at  breakfast.  It  happened  here  about  three  years  ago  at 
Brantwood  to  me. 

“  ‘  Joan  R.  Severn.' 

“  In  reply  to  inquiries  Mrs.  Severn  writes :  ‘  There  was  no  doubt  about 
my  starting  up  in  bed  wide  awake,  as  I  stuffed  my  pocket  handkerchief 
into  my  mouth,  and  held  it  pressed  to  my  upper  lip  for  some  time  before 
removing  it  “  to  see  the  blood,” —  and  was  much  surprised  that  there  was 
none.  Some  little  time  afterwards  I  fell  asleep  again.  I  believe  that  when 
I  got  up,  an  hour  afterwards,  the  impression  was  still  vividly  in  my  mind, 
and  that  as  I  was  dressing  I  did  look  under  my  lip  to  see  if  there  was  any 
mark.” 

Another  incident  of  a  trivial  sort  is  reported  in  the  same  volume 
by  the  Rev.  P.  H.  Newnham,  who  has  also  reported  many  other 
coincidences. 


“  ‘  January  26,  1885. 

“  ‘  In  March,  1861,  I  was  living  at  Houghton,  Hants.  My  wife  was  at 
the  time  confined  to  the  house,  by  delicacy  of  the  lungs.  One  day,  walking 
through  a  lane,  I  found  the  first  wild  violets  of  the  spring,  and  took  them 
home  to  her. 

“‘Early  in  April  I  was  attacked  with  a  dangerous  illness;  and  in  June 
left  the  place.  I  never  told  my  wife  exactly  where  I  found  the  violets, 
nor,  for  the  reasons  explained,  did  I  ever  walk  with  her  past  the  place 
where  they  grew,  for  many  years. 

“‘In  November,  1873,  we  were  staying  with  friends  at  Houghton;  and 
myself  and  wife  took  a  walk  up  the  lane  in  question.  As  we  passed  by 
the  place,  the  recollection  of  those  early  violets  of  twelve  and  a  half  years 
ago  flashed  upon  my  mind.  At  the  usual  interval  of  some  twenty  or  thirty 
seconds  my  wife  remarked,  “  It ’s  very  curious,  but  if  it  were  not  impos¬ 
sible,  I  should  declare  that  I  could  smell  violets  in  the  hedge.” 

“  I  had  not  spoken,  nor  made  any  gesture  or  movement  of  any  kind,  to 
indicate  what  I  was  thinking  of.  Neither  had  my  memory  called  up  the 
perfume.  All  that  I  thought  of  was  the  exact  locality  on  the  hedge  bank, 
my  memory  being  exceedingly  minute  for  locality.” 

“  Mr.  Newnham’s  residence  at  Houghton  lasted  only  a  few  months,  and 
with  the  help  of  a  diary  he  can  account  for  nearly  every  day’s  walking 
and  work.  “  My  impression  is,  ”  he  says,  “  that  this  was  the  first  and  only 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


87 

time  that  I  explored  this  particular  ‘drive’;  and  I  feel  certain  that  Mrs. 
Newnham  never  saw  the  spot  at  all  until  November,  1873.  The  hedges 
had  then  been  grubbed,  and  no  violets  grew  there.” 

“  Mrs.  Newnham  confirms  the  story;  and,  though  it  cannot  be  regarded  as 
proof  of  telepathy,  it,  with  other  and  more  evidential  experiences  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Newnham,  is  of  sufficient  interest  to  justify  investigation  of  the 
subject. 

‘‘  The  next  instance  is  interesting,  as  it  might  have  coincided  with  death, 
had  the  person  involved  in  it  died  at  the  time.  The  circumstances  which 
give  the  incident  its  value  will  also  have  to  be  told. 

“  ‘  November,  1884. 

“  ‘  When  I  was  a  child  I  had  many  remarkable  experiences  of  a  psychical 
nature,  which  I  remember  to  have  looked  upon  as  ordinary  and  natural 
at  the  time. 

“‘On  one  occasion  (I  am  unable  to  fix  the  date,  but  I  must  have  been 
about  ten  years  old)  I  was  walking  in  a  country  lane  at  A.,  the  place 
where  my  parents  then  resided.  I  was  reading  geometry  as  I  walked  along, 
a  subject  little  likely  to  produce  fancies  or  morbid  phenomena  of  any  kind, 
when,  in  a  moment,  I  saw  a  bedroom  known  as  the  White  Room  in  my 
home,  and  upon  the  floor  lay  my  mother,  to  all  appearance  dead.  The  vision 
must  have  remained  some  minutes,  during  which  time  my  real  surround¬ 
ings  seemed  to  pale  and  die  out;  but  as  the  vision  faded,  actual  surround¬ 
ings  came  back,  at  first  dimly,  and  then  clearly. 

“  ‘  I  could  not  doubt  that  what  I  had  seen  was  real,  so,  instead  of  going 
home,  I  went  at  once  to  the  house  of  our  medical  man  and  found  him  at 
home.  He  at  once  set  out  with  me  for  my  home,  on  the  way  putting  ques¬ 
tions  I  could  not  answer,  as  my  mother  was  to  all  appearance  well  when 
I  left  home. 

“  ‘  I  led  the  doctor  straight  to  the  White  Room,  where  we  found  my 
mother  actually  lying  as  in  my  vision.  This  was  true  even  to  minute  de¬ 
tails.  She  had  been  seized  suddenly  by  an  attack  at  the  heart,  and  would 
soon  have  breathed  her  last  but  for  the  doctor’s  timely  advent.  I  shall 
get  my  father  and  mother  to  read  this  and  sign  it. 

“  ‘Jeanie  Gwynne  Bettany.’ ” 

“  The  father  and  mother  signed  the  document  and  then  the  lady  herself 
in  response  to  inquiries  made  the  following  important  statements. 

“  (i)  I  was  in  no  anxiety  about  my  mother  at  the  time  I  saw  the  vision 
I  described. 

“  (2)  Something  a  little  similar  had  once  occurred  to  my  mother.  She 
had  been  out  riding  alone,  and  the  horse  brought  her  to  our  door  hanging 
half  off  his  back,  in  a  faint.  This  was  a  long  time  before,  and  she  never 
rode  again.  Heart  disease  had  set  in.  She  was  not  in  the  habit  of  faint¬ 
ing  unless  an  attack  of  the  heart  was  upon  her.  Between  the  attacks  she 
looked  and  acted  as  if  in  health. 

“  (3)  The  occasion  I  describe  was.  I  believe,  the  only  one  on  which  I 
saw  a  scene  transported  apparently  into  the  actual  field  of  vision,  to  the 
exclusion  of  objects  and  surroundings  actually  present. 

“  I  have  had  other  visions  in  which  I  have  seen  events  happening  as 


88  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


they  really  zt’ere,  in  another  place,  but  I  have  been  also  conscious  of  real 
surroundings. 

“  (4)  No  one  could  tell  whetlier  my  vision  preceded  the  fact  or  not. 
My  mother  was  supposed  to  be  out.  No  one  knew  anything  of  my  mother’s 
being  ill,  till  I  took  the  doctor  and  my  father,  whom  I  had  encountered  at 
the  door,  to  the  room  where  I  found  my  mother  as  I  had  seen  her  in  my 
vision. 

“  (5)  The  doctor  is  dead.  He  has  no  living  relation.  No  one  in  A. 
knew  anything  of  these  circumstances. 

“  (6)  The  White  Room  in  which  I  saw  my  mother,  and  afterwards 
actually  found  her,  was  out  of  use.  It  was  unlikely  she  should  be  there. 
She  was  found  lying  in  the  attitude  in  which  I  had  seen  her.  I  found  a 
handkerchief  with  a  lace  border  beside  her  on  the  floor.  This  I  had  dis¬ 
tinctly  noticed  in  my  vision.  There  were  other  particulars  of  coincidence 
which  I  cannot  put  here.  ” 

Mrs.  Bettany’s  father  has  given  the  following  fuller  account: — 

“  I  distinctly  remember  being  surprised  by  seeing  my  daughter,  in  com¬ 
pany  with  the  family  doctor,  outside  the  door  of  my  residence;  and  I  asked 
‘  \\’ho  is  ill  ?  ’  She  replied,  ‘  Mamma.  ’  She  led  the  way  at  once  to  the 
‘  White  Room,’  where  we  found  my  wife  lying  in  a  swoon  on  the  floor. 
It  was  when  I  asked  vchen  she  had  been  taken  ill,  that  I  found  that  it  must 
have  been  after  my  daughter  had  left  the  house.  None  of  the  servants 
in  the  house  knew  anything  of  the  sudden  illness,  which  our  doctor  assured 
me  would  have  been  fatal  had  he  not  arrived  when  he  did.  My  wife  was 
quite  well  when  I  left  her  in  the  morning. 

“  S.  G.  Gwynne.  ” 

This  incident  is  interesting:  for  we  cannot  suppose  that  the 
mother  was  the  agent  without  assuming  that  she  had  subconsciously 
thought  of  her  daughter,  which  she  would  be  less  likely  to  do  than 
to  think  of  her  husband.  It  is  a  case  so  closely  allied  to  those  which 
purport  to  involve  the  intervention  of  the  dead  that  it  is  well  worth 
quoting  here. 

I  next  take,  from  the  “  Proceedings  ”  of  the  American  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  an  incident  which  was  partly  experimental, 
but  which  also  represents  a  spontaneous  coincidence. 

“  January  15,  1907. 

“  I  sat  down  to  read  proofs  a  moment  ago,  and  in  the  sentence,  ‘  I  had 
hoped  by  the  article  to  begin  the  task  of  crystallizing,’  the  syllable  ‘  izing  ’ 
beginning  the  next  line,  I  read  the  word  ‘  crystallizing  ’  as  ‘  crystal  gaz¬ 
ing  ’  twice,  and  being  puzzled  by  its  irrelevance  I  looked  a  third  time 
and  found  that  it  was  a  most  distinct  illusion.  I  had  a  few  minutes  —  per¬ 
haps  ten  or  fifteen  —  before  been  occupied  with  the  subject  of  classifying 
crystal  visions. 

“  Immediately  I  resolved  to  test  my  secretary  and,  taking  the  proofs 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


89 

around  to  her,  asked  her  to  read  the  sentence  aloud,  without  saying  what 
I  wanted.  At  Uie  same  time,  1  willed  that  she  should  say  ‘  crystal  gaz¬ 
ing  '  instead  of  ’  crystallizing,’  which  she  did  twice.  As  soon  as  it  was 
over  she  told  me  that  just  a  second  or  two  before  I  asked  her  to  read  the 
sentence,  she  saw  an  apparition  of  a  crystal  and  thought  of  crystal  gazing 
several  times.  She  could  not  have  seen  or  known  what  I  was  thinking 
about. 

“James  H.  Hyslop." 

Another  instance  shows  the  caprice  and  spontaneity  that  justifies 
classification  with  spontaneous  cases. 

“  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  January  i,  1907. 

“  Dr.  James  H.  Hyslop. 

“Dear  Sir;  I  send  the  following  instance  of  telepathy  as  a  very  satis¬ 
factory  demonstration. 

“  Mr.  C.  C.  Rodgers  went  out  to  make  a  purchase  for  me.  He  ran 
quickly  down  from  the  third  floor  and  I  heard  the  front  door  close.  At 
once  there  flashed  into  my  consciousness,  ‘  Go  to  my  gray  trousers.'  The 
message  seemed  to  carry  its  own  impulse.  I  obeyed  without  hesitation, 
surprise  or  thought  of  its  meaning.  I  walked  to  the  wardrobe  and  my 
hand  at  once  touched  the  bunch  of  keys  in  one  of  the  pockets.  Then  I 
knew.  I  put  my  hand  in  the  pocket,  got  the  keys,  went  to  the  front  window 
and  waited  his  return.  When  he  came  in  the  gate  I  threw  the  keys  down 
to  him.  He  let  himself  in  at  the  front  door  and  came  bounding  up  the 
stairs.  ‘  You  got  my  message,’  he  exclaimed.  ‘  When  I  realized  I  had 
forgotten  my  keys,  I  sent  you  a  message  to  go  to  my  gray  trousers  and 
throw  them  down  to  me.’  No  comment  can  make  this  stronger. 

“  Frederika  Cantwell.” 

The  gentleman  confirms  the  story.  I  quote  another  incident 
from  the  same  source.  It  was  reported  by  Professor  H.  Norman 
Gardiner,  of  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Massachusetts. 

“  May  6,  1909. 

“  My  father  and  brother  are  ardent  hunters,  you  should  know.  Recently 
my  brother  trapped  a  muskrat,  which  quite  oddly  was  alive  when  he  got  to 
the  trap.  At  this  season  they  usually  drown  very  soon  after  being  caught. 
My  brother  was  alone  and  my  father  did  not  know  where  he  had  been.  All 
he  knew  was  the  fact  of  his  finding  a  muskrat  alive  in  his  trap  and  killing 
him.  I  established  this  fact  by  careful  inquiry  of  both  of  them. 

“  The  next  morning  father  said  that  he  had  dreamed  the  night  before 
that  he  was  trapping  muskrat,  and  that  when  he  got  to  one  trap  it  had  a 
live  rat  in  it.  (So  far  the  dream  was  merely  the  reproduction  of  what  he 
had  been  told.)  But  he  went  on  to  say  that  the  rat  was  some  distance 
from  the  shore,  and  that  he  hunted  around  and  found  a  very  long  bean¬ 
pole  and  with  that  dispatched  the  rat.  Then  Walter  said:  ‘  I  killed  min" 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


90 

with  a  bean-pole.'  ‘  Mine  was  sharpened  at  the  end/  said  my  father. 

‘  And  so  was  mine/  said  my  brother. 

“  It  will  not  occur  to  you  how  odd  that  was,  because  it  is  unlikely  that 
you  ever  hunted  muskrats  much.  If  you  had,  one  of  the  last  images  which 
you  would  call  up  would  be  cultivated  fields  and  gardens.  I  asked  Walter 
if  he  had  told  any  one  about  using  the  bean-pole,  and  he  said  he  had  not. 
I  then  asked  father  if  he  ever  in  his  life  had  done  the  same  thing  or  in  any 
way  connected  muskrats  and  bean  gardens,  and  he  could  recall  nothing  to 
bring  up  the  dream. 

“  It  seems  to  be  thought  transference.  In  our  family  this  is  not  strange 
My  brother,  sister  and  I  all  agree  that  we  all  of  us,  to  some  extent,  read 
father’s  mind.  “(Mrs.)  F - . ” 

These  sufifice  to  illustrate  spontaneous  incidents  which  occur  by 
the  thousand.  They  may  not  have  scientific  cogency,  but  they  sug¬ 
gest  the  need  of  experiment  to  decide  the  matter.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  superficial  indication  of  anything  more  than  some  connec¬ 
tion  between  living  minds  in  these  phenomena;  if  they  are  super¬ 
normal,  they  do  not  suggest  any  third  party  as  a  link  in  the  series. 
We  turn  to  the  next  type. 

The  occurrence  of  spontaneous  cases  suggested  experiment  for 
deciding  the  question.  In  the  other  sciences,  if  experiment  was 
possible,  it  was  not  necessary  to  depend  upon  spontaneous  phe¬ 
nomena  for  proof.  Experiments  were  tried  with  apparent  success. 
Illustrations  are  in  order. 

I  myself  on  one  occasion  made  an  experiment  of  some  interest. 
I  was  investigating  a  professional  claimant  of  telepathic  powers, 
and  was  not  satisfied  with  his  performance,  as  it  showed  distinct 
evidences  of  the  signal  code  and  other  methods  of  the  conjurer. 
At  last  I  selected  a  young  man  from  those  whom  I  had  invited  to 
witness  the  evening’s  experiment.  He  was  an  absolute  stranger 
to  the  man  whom  I  was  investigating  and  came  with  another  guest 
of  mine.  I  blindfolded  the  young  man  and  superintended  the  ex¬ 
periments  myself.  The  young  man  sat  about  four  feet  in  front 
of  me,  and  I  stood  up  with  a  writing  pad  in  my  hand  in  such  a  posi¬ 
tion  that  he  could  not  see  it. 

I  first  drew  a  triangle  with  a  circle  in  it,  while  we  remained 
quiet.  No  word  or  signal  was  uttered.  In  a  few  moments  the 
young  man  got  a  triangle  with  a  circle  in  it.  I  then  drew  a  circle 
with  a  triangle  in  it  and  in  the  triangle  a  plus  mark  or  cross.  In  a 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


91 

few  moments  the  young  man  got  two  sides  of  the  triangle  and  the 
cross  inside  them.  I  then  drew  a  pig  and  he  soon  got  “  a  goat 
or  a  pig.  ”  This  ended  the  experiment.  I  am  sure  thaft  there  was 
no  collusion  nor  possible  fraud. 

In  a  series  of  experiments  some  years  later  I  obtained  interesting 
results  of  another  kind.  The  subject  was  unable  to  reproduce 
drawings  or  to  get  words  or  ideas  simply  thought  by  the  agent,  but 
could  find  objects  and  put  them  in  places  intended  by  the  agents. 
In  other  words,  she  could  carry  out  motor  impulses  apparently 
suggested  by  telepathy.  The  thought  to  be  conveyed  to  her  was 
written  down  in  a  book  and  read  silently  by  the  persons  acting  as 
agents,  while  the  lady  was  in  another  room  at  some  distance.  She 
was  later  admitted  to  the  room  for  the  experiment.  Two  stood 
behind  her  and  touched  hands,  but  did  not  touch  the  subject  or 
percipient.  The  percipient  stood  a  moment  with  eyes  dowmcast, 
then  went  to  the  object  thought  of,  picked  it  up,  and  put  it  in  the 
intended  spot.  This  performance  was  successfully  repeated  so 
often  as  to  exclude  explanation  by  chance,  and  only  those  who  did 
not  witness  the  phenomena  could  offer  to  explain  them  as  the 
results  of  unconscious  suggestions. 

For  instance,  in  one  experiment  it  was  willed  that  the  subject 
should  get  a  pocketbook  out  of  a  vase  ten  feet  distant,  and  put  it 
on  the  bookcase  in  another  room.  She  promptly  went  to  the 
vase  and  got  the  pocketbook,  and  on  the  second  trial  put  it  on  the 
bookcase  intended.  In  another  experiment  she  was  to  get  the 
keys  which  I  had  concealed  in  the  sofa  in  the  reception  room,  and 
put  them  on  the  piano.  Both  actions  were  promptly  performed 
on  the  first  trial.  One  hundred  twenty-four  similar  experiments, 
most  of  them  quite  as  complex  as  the  examples  mentioned,  were 
performed  with  a  success  that  strongly  suggested  supernormal 
knowledge.  The  results  were  published  in  the  “  Proceedings  "  of 
the  American  Society.  They  are  the  only  results  that  I  was  ever 
able  personally  to  obtain  in  support  of  any  kind  of  telepathy. 

Mr.  Malcolm  Guthrie  and  Mr.  Birchall,  members  of  the  Liver¬ 
pool  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  published  some  good 
results  in  the  English  “  Proceedings.”  ‘  I  can  choose  only  a  few 
1  “  Proceedings,”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol.  I,  p.  263. 


92 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


illustrations  from  a  very  lengthy  report.  The  operators  and  sub¬ 
jects  of  experiment  were  people  in  private  life,  and  no  professional 
interests  were  involved.  In  some  of  the  experiments  contact  be¬ 
tween  the  agent  and  the  percipient  was  allowed,  but  in  many  of 
them  this  contact  was  not  permitted,  so  that  ordinary  muscle-read¬ 
ing  was  excluded.  The  nature  of  the  objects  chosen,  however,  and 
the  promptness  of  the  answers,  in  the  cases  where  contact  was  per¬ 
mitted,  show  conclusively  that  contact  did  not  affect  results.  I  shall 
choose  some  instances  from  the  cases  in  which  contact  was  not 
permitted. 

The  agent  thought  of  a  half  croivn;  the  percipient  stated  her  im¬ 
pression  :  “  Like  a  flat  bottom  —  bright  ...  no  particular  color.” 
In  the  second  experiment  the  four  of  spades  was  in  the  mind  of 
the  agent;  the  answer  given  was:  “A  card  .  .  .  four  of  clubs.” 
She  said  afterwards  that  she  did  not  know  the  difference  between 
spades  and  clubs.  In  the  third  experiment  the  agent  thought  of  an 
egg;  the  percipient  said:  “  Looks  remarkably  like  an  egg.”  In  the 
fourth  o  penholder  with  thimble  inverted  on  the  end  was  the  object 
thought  of  and  the  answer  was :  ‘  A  column,  with  something  bell¬ 
shaped  turned  down  on  it.”  In  the  fifth  experiment  the  agent 
thought  of  a  small  gold  ear-ring;  the  percipient  answered:  “  Round 
and  bright  .  .  .  yellow  .  .  .  with  loop  to  hang  it  by.” 

In  a  set  of  experiments  in  which  contact  was  allowed,  out  of 
four  attempts  only  one  was  successful  —  a  result  which  tends  to 
show  that  ^ntact  was  not  a  condition  of  success.  In  another  set 
of  four  experiments  without  contact  the  following  were  the  re¬ 
sults:  In  the  first  experiment,  Object:  A  gold  cross.  Result: 
“  It  is  yellow  ...  it  is  a  cross.”  In  the  second  experiment.  Ob¬ 
ject:  A  red  ivory  chess  knight.  Result:  “  It  is  red  .  .  .  broad 
at  the  bottom  .  .  .  then  very  narrow  .  .  .  then  broad  again  at 
the  top  ...  it  is  a  chessman.”  Asked  to  name  the  piece,  per¬ 
cipient  said  she  did  not  know  the  names  of  the  pieces.  In  the  third 
experiment.  Object:  A  half  crown  held  up  by  Mr.  B.,  taken  out 
of  his  pocket  after  he  had  placed  the  percipient  with  face  to  the 
wall  and  away  from  the  agent.  Result:  “  It  is  round  .  .  .  bright 
...  no  particular  color  .  .  .  silver  ...  it  is  a  piece  of  money 
.  .  .  larger  than  a  shilling,  but  not  as  large  as  ...  ”  The  per- 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


93 

cipient  was  unable  to  say  more.  In  the  fourth  experiment,  Object : 
A  diamond  of  pink  silk  on  black  satin.  Result:  “  Light  pink 
.  .  .  cannot  make  out  the  shape  .  .  .  seems  moving  about.” 
The  object  was  held  somewhat  unsteadily  by  Mr.  G.  In  both  these 
sets  of  experiments  the  successes  certainly  cannot  be  explained  as 
chance. 

There  is  no  superficial  evidence  of  spirits  in  these  instances  of 
telepathy.  We  may  suspend  judgment  as  to  the  explanation  of 
them,  but  w'e  cannot  quote  them  in  proof  either  of  the  existence  of 
spirits  or  of  their  influence  to  produce  the  effects.  For  aught  that 
we  know,  spirits  may  be  instrumental  in  producing  them ;  but  the 
phenomena  themselves  bear  no  testimony  to  that  effect. 

Professor  Barrett,  now  Sir  William  F.  Barrett,  reported  a  series 
of  experiments  for  telepathy  under  good  conditions,  of  which  the 
illustrations  appended  explain  themselves.  The  experiments  were 
made  without  contact  and  represent  drawings  by  the  agent  repro¬ 
duced  by  the  percipient.  (“  Proceedings,”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  207-215.) 

I  now  come  to  a  type  of  phenomenon  in  which  a  living  person 
appears  to  another,  when  one  of  them  is  thinking  of  the  other  or 
even  trying  to  impress  him  with  the  sense  of  his  presence.  I  shall 
quote  only  a  few  cases  in  illustration.  I  take  the  first  incident  from 
Mr.  Podmore’s  ”  Apparitions  and  Thought-Transference.” 

Rev.  Clarence  Godfrey  resolved  to  make  himself  appear  to  a 
friend.  Without  acquainting  his  friend  with  his  intention,  he 
determined  before  going  to  sleep  to  “translate”  himself  “spir¬ 
itually  ”  into  her  room  so  that  he  could  be  seen.  This  effort  was 
sustained  for  about  eight  minutes  :  he  then  went  to  sleep,  but  was 
awakened  at  about  3  140  m.  with  some  consciousness  of  her  pres¬ 
ence.  This  was  on  November  15. 

On  the  next  day,  November  16,  he  received  an  account  from 
the  lady,  telling  her  experience,  saying  that  at  about  3  130  a.  m.  she 
had  awakened  with  a  start  and  had  seen  Mr.  Godfrey  standing  near 
the  window  on  the  staircase.  He  had  vanished  in  three  or  four 
seconds. 

Mr.  Godfrey  tried  a  similar  experiment  a  second  time  and 
succeeded.  Herr  Weserman,  an  official  in  the  German  Government, 


94  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

tried  the  experiment  frequently  with  marked  success.  Dr.  Funk 
reported  to  me  a  case  which  I  investigated  and  recorded. 

A  lady  who  had  been  reading  Hudson’s  book  on  psychic  phe¬ 
nomena  learned  from  it  that  she  might  be  able  to  make  herself 
appear  to  another;  she  resolved  to  try  the  experiment  on  her  hus¬ 
band.  She  was  at  Derby,  Connecticut,  at  the  time  of  the  experi¬ 
ment,  and  her  husband  was  away  on  business.  She  did  not  know 
where  he  was,  but  thought  he  might  be  in  New  York,  Schenectady, 
Syracuse  or  Buffalo.  She  went  to  sleep  in  Derby  willing  that  she 
should  appear  to  her  husband,  wake  him,  and  kiss  him  on  the  fore¬ 
head.  On  that  night  he  awakened  at  about  one  o’clock  and  saw  his 
wife  standing  at  the  foot  of  his  bed.  He  asked  what  she  was  doing 
there,  whereupon  she  walked  round  and  kissed  him  on  the 
forehead. 

There  are  numerous  spontaneous  cases  of  the  kind,  more  or  less 
well  authenticated,  which  the  skeptical  are  the  more  ready  to  accept 
because  they  afford  a  refuge  from  the  spiritistic  hypothesis.  They 
require  as  much  authentication  as  other  types  of  apparition,  and, 
as  they  are  less  numerous  than  those  of  the  dying  and  the  dead,  they 
are  not  as  cogent  evidence  for  the  supernormal,  though,  when 
proved,  they  afford  support  for  telepathy.  I  have  sufficiently  illus¬ 
trated  the  type,  which  supports  the  definition  of  telepathy  as  a  coin¬ 
cidence  between  the  mental  states  of  two  living  persons.  They  do 
not  suggest  spiritistic  interpretations  of  any  kind. 

We  come  next  to  a  type  of  phenomena  which  have  been  classi¬ 
fied  under  telepathy  because  they  do  not,  superficially  at  least, 
serve  as  evidence  of  discarnate  spirits. 

The  two  volumes  on  “  Phantasms  of  the  Living,”  most  of  which 
are  in  fact  apparitions  of  the  dying,  and  the  “  Census  of  Hallucina¬ 
tions,”  Volume  X  of  the  English  “Proceedings,”  include  hundreds 
of  cases  of  this  type.  They  are  usually  appearances  of  a  dying 
person  at  the  time  of  death  or  very  near  it.  Everyone  must  con¬ 
cede  that  the  circumstances  cannot  be  explained  as  chance  coinci¬ 
dence.  Let  me  abbreviate  two  instances,  which  I  quote  from  the 
"  Census  of  Hallucinations.” 

“TrcKHiLL,  Yorks,  June  12,  1891. 

An  aunt  of  mine,  who  died  in  England  last  November,  1890.  appeared 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


95 

before  me  in  Australia,  and  I  knew  before  I  received  the  letter  of  her 
death  that  she  was  dead.  I  took  a  note  of  it  at  the  time  and  found  on 
comparing  notes  that  she  appeared  to  me  the  day  she  died  —  date  Novem¬ 
ber  17th,  1890.  ” 

The  next  instance  is  also  of  interest  because  of  the  distance  be¬ 
tween  those  concerned. 


“  September,  1893. 

“  At  the  end  of  August  of  the  year  1882,  my  father,  mother,  and  sisters 
left  home  for  our  usual  summer  holiday.  At  the  same  time  a  young  man 
whom  we  knew  quite  slightly  (although  he  was  our  neighbor)  started  to 
Texas  to  learn  farming,  for  which  I  felt  sorry,  because  I  was  looking 
forward  to  paint  well  enough  by  my  return  to  ask  him  to  sit  for  the  prin¬ 
cipal  figure  in  a  picture  I  was  longing  to  do. 

“  We  went  to  a  cottage  in  Gloucestershire,  where  my  sister  and  I  shared 
the  same  room.  About  the  fourteenth  of  September,  1882,  my  sister  and 
I  felt  worried  and  distressed  by  hearing  the  death  watch ;  it  lasted  a 
whole  day  and  night.  We  got  up  earlier  than  usual  the  next  morning,  about 
six  o’clock,  to  finish  some  birthday  presents  for  our  mother.  As  my 
sister  and  I  were  working  and  talking  together,  I  looked  up,  and  saw  our 
young  acquaintance  standing  in  front  of  me  and  looking  at  us.  I  turned 
to  my  sister,  she  saw  nothing;  I  looked  again  to  where  he  stood,  he  had 
vanished.  We  agreed  not  to  tell  any  one  —  and,  although  I  wished  to  put 
it  down  in  my  diary  (which  I  had  not  kept  for  some  time),  I  was  afraid 
to  do  so;  I  therefore  made  marks  to  remind  myself. 

“  Some  time  afterwards  we  heard  that  our  young  acquaintance  had 
either  committed  suicide  or  had  been  killed ;  he  was  found  dead  in  the 
woods  twenty-four  hours  after  landing. 

“  On  looking  back  to  my  diary,  I  found  that  my  marks  corresponded  to 
the  date  of  his  death.  ” 

These  two  typical  instances  have  been  chosen  because  the  circum¬ 
stances  make  it  difficult  to  account  for  them  by  any  previous  knowl¬ 
edge  on  the  part  of  the  percipient.  The  main  point  is,  that  the 
writers  of  the  reports  of  these  phenomena  explain  them  by  telepathy, 
with  the  idea  that  this  explanation  excludes  the  possibility  of  the 
action  of  spirits.  The  impression  is  always  left  that  the  incidents 
are  evidence  of  telepathy  between  the  living,  which  in  reality  they 
are  not.  They  are  in  no  respect  evidence  for  telepathy  so  defined. 
Some  of  the  recorded  instances  show  that  the  dying  person  was 
thinking  of  the  percipient  at  the  time,  but  the  majority  of  them 
exhibit  no  such  fact;  tl^T^uch  thought  was  present  cannot  be  con- 
iectured  as  probable,  and  then  used  as  evidence.  The  possibility  is 
sometimes  emphasized  that  the  range  of  telepathy  may  be  extended 


96  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

so  far  as  to  shut  out  the  appeal  to  such  cases  as  evidence  for  the 
action  of  discarnate  spirits.  I  quite  agree  that  they  cannot  be  used 
as  evidence  for  the  existence  and  action  of  spirits;  but  neither  can 
they  be  quoted  as  evidence  for  telepathy  of  the  type  that  excludes 
the  action  of  spirits.  The  fact  that  the  coincidence  occurs  more 
frequently  in  connection  with  dying  than  with  living  persons  tends 
to  show  that  death  has  something  to  do  with  causing  the  phe¬ 
nomena;  and,  though  we  may  not  be  justified  in  invoking  spirits 
to  account  for  the  facts,  it  is  quite  as  legitimate  to  explain  the 
phenomena  by  regarding  the  dying  person  as  a  free  spirit  at  the 
time  as  by  regarding  him  as  a  telepathic  agent.  In  other  words, 
the  cases  are  not  evidence  on  either  side  of  the  controversy.  They 
are  border-land  phenomena  explicable  by  either  hypothesis  and  evi¬ 
dence  of  neither. 

This  last  statement,  hov/ever,  is  dependent  on  the  narrow  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  term  telepathy.  In  the  use  of  it  as  a  rival  hypothesis  to 
that  of  spirit  agencies,  the  term  implies  a  limitation  to  coincidences 
between  living  people  and  so  assumes  nothing  about  a  similar  pro¬ 
cess  between  the  dead  and  the  living. 

The  only  argument  for  telepathy  in  apparitions  of  the  dying  is 
the  presumption  that  the  consciousness  of  the  dying  person  is  not 
yet  dissociated  from  the  body.  There  are  affiliations  between  such 
phenomena  and  two  other  types,  which  are  more  clearly  indicative 
of  the  existence  of  the  discarnate  :_visions  appearing  to  the  dying, 
and  apparitions  of  the  dead.  Neither  of  these  types  is  evidence 
for  telepathy,  in  any  sense  determined  by  experimental  and  spon¬ 
taneous  coincidences  and  apparitions  of  the  dying.  They  represent 
apparent  communication  with  the  dead,  and,  at  least  to  some  extent, 
are  evidence  of  it.  Visions  that  represent  apparitions  of  the  dead, 
appearing  to  the  dying,  lack  all  the  conditions  for  evidence  of  telep¬ 
athy  between  the  living,  though  connected  with  those  in  articulo 
mortis  conditions  associated  with  the  apparition  of  the  dying  to  the 
living.  They  are  in  fact  a  border-land  type  of  apparitions  of  the 
dead,  just  as  apparitions  of  the  dying  are  the  border-land  phenom¬ 
ena  between  telepathy  with  the  living  and  telepathy  with  the  dead. 

I  need  not  illustrate  phantasms  of  the  dead  or  visions  of  the  dying 
in  this  connection.  It  is  quite  apparent  that  neither  of  them  can  be 


EXI’ERI.MEXTS  IN  TELEPATHy 


Original  Drawing. 


Experiment  II 


Original  Drawing. 


Reproduction. 


Experiment  HI 


Original  Drawing. 


i  -s-afe, ,.  '£»'% 


A  ••isW>  •  T-  ,^‘Tf  - 

VSSfV'^:- 


Reproduction. 


Experiment  IV 


Original  Drawing, 


Reproddction. 


Experiment  V' 


Original  Drawing. 


Reproduction. 


Experiment  VI 


Original  Drawing. 


Reproduction. 


Experiment  VII 


Oeiginal  Deawing. 


Ekphoddction. 


Experiment  VIII 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


97 

explained  by  telepathy  between  the  living,  except  by  stretching  the 
meaning  of  the  term  beyond  the  evidence.  If  apparitions  of  the 
dead  and  visions  of  the  dying  are  evidence  of  a  telepathic  process 
between  the  dead  and  the  living,  and  so  to  that  extent  serve  as  evi¬ 
dence  for  the  existence  of  spirits,  the  hypothesis  of  telepathy  is 
abandoned,  not  as  a  fact  but  as  an  alternative  to  the  spiritistic  hy¬ 
pothesis.  It  may  name  a  process  of  unknown  nature,  common  to 
both  incarnate  and  discarnate  minds.  I  have  no  objections  to  such 
an  employment  of  the  term,  but  it  nullifies  the  popular  antithesis 
between  telepathy  and  spiritism.  It  even  involves  the  possibility 
that  spirits  may  furnish  the  explanation  of  telepathy  between  the 
living.  Mr.  Myers  saw  this  implication  at  the  very  outset  of  the 
investigations  into  telepathy.  He  perceived  that  any  transcendental 
process  of  communication  between  the  living  involved  such  inde¬ 
pendence  of  normal  sensory  processes  as  to  render  the  isolation  of 
consciousness  easily  conceivable ;  the  next  step  would  be  to  regard 
telepathy  as  the  manner  of  communication,  at  least  in  certain  types 
of  phenomena. 

If  the  dead  as  well 'as  the  living  may  be  telepathic  agents,  posi¬ 
tive  evidence  alone  is  needed  to  show  that  discarnate  spirits  may 
intervene  in  telepathy  between  the  living.  In  an  address  before 
the  English  Society,  Professor  Gilbert  Murray,  in  order  to  suggest 
some  known  physiological  or  psychological  condition  that  would 
make  telepathy  possible,  proposed  that  telepathy  between  the  living 
might  be  due  to  hypersesthesia.  But  such  an  explanation  would  ab¬ 
surdly  extend  the  limits  of  hyper^esthesia.  We  cannot  apply  tactual 
hyperjesthesia  to  perception  at  a  distance  of  ten  feet,  nor  visual  hy¬ 
peresthesia  to  perception  of  a  crow  a  thousand  miles  away.  Nearly 
all  the  phenomena  which  believers  in  telepathy  regard  as  evi¬ 
dence  for  the  process  are  not  explainable  as  hyperesthesia. 

It  is  evident  that  not  all  the  phenomena  outside  of  experimental 
and  spontaneous  coincidences  between  living  people  can  be  adduced 
as  evidence  for  telepathy.  They  are  at  least  open  to  other  explana¬ 
tions.  Telepathy  itself  e.xplains  nothing:  it  has  no  office  beyond 
that  of  description  and  classification.  So  far  as  we  know,  the 
activity  of  spirits  might  explain  telepathy  itself,  though  for  this  ex¬ 
planation  we  should  have  to  adduce  evidence.  Much  will  depend  on 


98  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  positive  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits.  This  evidence  is 
confined  to  phenomena  indicating  the  continued  personal  identity  of 
the  dead ;  so  long  as  we  limit  the  evidence  for  discarnate  action  to 
this  type  of  occurrence,  we  cannot  make  the  hypothesis  of  spirits 
explain  either  coincidences  between  the  living,  or  any  other  phe¬ 
nomena  not  indicative  of  discarnate  memory. 

But  if  we  once  have  sufficient  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits 
and  also  find  evidence  of  their  intervention  in  human  affairs  in  phe¬ 
nomena  that  cannot  possibly  be  explicable  by  telepathy,  we  may 
have  reason  to  consider  their  intervention  probable  in  the  ordinary 
cases  of  telepathy.  There  is  on  record  much  evidence  of  this  in¬ 
tervention;  further  evidence  may  show  that  intervention  extends 
to  the  coincidences  which  have  passed  as  telepathy  between  the 
living,  which  in  the  first  stage  of  the  investigation  could  not  be 
considered  direct  evidence  of  discarnate  intelligence. 

In  the  experiments  between  Miss  Miles  and  Miss  Ramsden,^  pub¬ 
lished  as  evidence  for  telepathy  between  the  living,  there  were  indi¬ 
cations  that  the  telepathy  was  effected  by  the  intervention  of  the 
dead,  or  at  least  involved  conditions  associating  the  dead  with  the 
result.  These  indications  were  not  apparent  in  the  account  of  the 
facts  published  by  the  English  Society.  Nothing  was  there  said 
about  some  other  types  of  phenomena  in  which  the  agent  and  the 
percipient  were  concerned.  Certain  circumstances  connected  with 
the  report  of  the  results  seemed  unusual  in  telepathy  between  the 
living  alone.  I  made  inquiry  of  the  ladies  and  found  that  only 
part  of  the  story  had  been  told.  Miss  Miles  was  an  all-round 
psychic.  She  had  had  experiences  in  automatic  writing,  apparent 
telekinesis  or  the  movement  of  objects  without  contact,  appari¬ 
tions,  and  dousing  both  by  clairvoyance  and  by  the  use  of  the  divin¬ 
ing-rod.  In  addition  she  let  drop  in  her  correspondence  with  me, 
that  she  could  always  tell  when  her  telepathy  was  successful  hy  the 
raps  that  she  heard.  That  is,  she  persisted  in  thinking  of  the  object 
_which  Miss  Ramsden  was  to  perceive  until  she  heard  raps;  she 
could  then  safely  regard  the  experiment  as  a  success.  Now  raps 
are  not  telepathic  phenomena,  but  have  altogether  another  associa¬ 
tion.  These  complications  of  the  phenomena  told  decidedly  against 
1  “  Proceedings,”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol.  XXI,  pp.  60-93. 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


99 

telepathy  between  the  living  alone  as  an  explanation,  and  the  asso¬ 
ciation  or  intervention  of  spirits  had  to  be  regarded  as  possible. 

A  paper  read  before  the  French  Society  narrated  an  experimental 
incident  of  some  importance.  It  was  translated  for  the  “  Journal  ” 
of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research  by  Madame  de 
Montalvo  and  published  in  Volume  VIII  (pp.  413-446).  The  in¬ 
cident  of  interest  here  is  the  following. 

The  gentleman  who  reported  the  circumstance  had  two  subjects 
with  whom  he  experimented.  One  of  them  went  to  the  sea-shore 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  other,  and  was  spending  some  time 
there.  Dr.  Geley,  the  experimenter,  was  with  the  other  in  Paris, 
and  tried  clairvoyance  one  evening  to  ascertain  if  the  subject  in 
Paris  could  see  the  surroundings  of  the  one  at  the  sea-shore.  He 
succeeded  in  getting  descriptions  of  scenes  and  objects  which  he 
afterward  verified.  But  accompanying  his  usual  experiments  with 
the  lady  were  two  visible  lights.  On  this  occasion  there  was  but 
one  light,  which  disappeared  when  the  clairvoyance  ceased.  Now 
lights  often  develop  into  apparitions;  at  any  rate,  this  association 
of  lights  with  clairvoyance  or  telepathic  phenomena  is  partial  evi¬ 
dence  for  the  intervention  of  spirits  in  them. 

in  communications  through  Mrs.  Smead,  the  wife  of  an  ortho¬ 
dox  clergyman,  Mr.  Podmore,  purporting  to  communicate,  said 
that  telepathy  was  always  a  message  carried  by  spirits  and  that 
they  could  do  it  instantly.  Mrs.  Smead  knew  little  of  Mr.  Pod- 
more;  there  was  no  reason  for  her  subconsciously  putting  this 
statement  into  the  mouth  of  Mr.  Podmore.  He  had  always  pressed 
telepathy  between  the  living  to  explain  all  alleged  spiritistic  phe¬ 
nomena.  Though  it  was  not  a  proof  of  his  identity  to  have  this 
reversal  of  his  opinion,  it  was  not  a  natural  view  for  Mrs.  Smead 
to  assign  to  him. 

Apparently  Mr.  Myers  took  the  same  view  of  telepathy,  as 
alway^s  involving  the  intervention  of  the  discarnate.  While  my 
publication  of  the  Miles-Ramsden  experiments  was  going  through 
the  press,  Mr.  Myers  purported  to  communicate  through  Mrs.  Chen- 
oweth,  making  a  spontaneous  allusion  to  telepathy  and  remarking 
that  “  it  all  depended  on  the  carrier.”  Not  wishing  to  mistake 
the  meaning  of  this  remark,  I  inquired  what  was  meant  by  ”  the 


loo  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

carrier”;  and  the  answer  was:  “Telepathy  is  always  a  message 
carried  by  spirits.” 

Still  better  indications  of  spiritistic  intervention  in  telepathy 
were  given  in  communications  from  Mrs.  Verrall  soon  after  her 
death.  She  had  believed  when  living  that  most  of  the  incidents  in 
the  record  of  Mrs.  Piper  and  in  her  own  mediumship  were  explica¬ 
ble  by  telepathy  between  the  living,  and  based  her  belief  in  spirits 
only  on  a  few  incidents  which  she  thought  could  not  be  so  explained. 
Mrs.  Verrall  died  in  July,  1916.  In  the  following  September  she 
purported  to  communicate  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  who  knew 
only  that  such  a  person  had  existed  and  had  done  automatic  writ¬ 
ing,  and  on  the  occasion  of  her  first  communications  made  an  ob¬ 
scure  reference  to  telepathy.  The  next  day  she  spontaneously 
brought  up  the  subject  again,  and  said  it  was  too  early  in  her  efforts 
to  make  clear  her  views  on  it.  On  the  day  following  she  again 
spontaneously  referred  to  it  in  the  following  manner. 

“  I  said  yesterday  that  I  would  write  more  about  the  telepathic  theory 
as  I  now  understand  it.  I  am  not  as  sure  of  the  passage  of  thought  through 
space  as  I  was  once,  and  I  had  begun  to  question  the  method  by  which 
thought  was  transferred  to  brains  before  I  came  here,  but  you  will  recall 
that  I  had  some  striking  instances  of  what  seemed  telepathy  tapping  a 
reservoir  of  thought  direct,  and  the  necessity  for  an  intervening  spirit 
was  uncalled  for;  but  there  were  other  instances  when  the  message  was 
transposed  or  translated  and  the  interposition  of  another  mind  was  un¬ 
questionably  true.  I  tried  many  experiments  and  I  think  you  must  know 
about  them. 

“  I  will  say  that  I  found  more  people  involved  in  my  work  than  I  had 
known  and  there  seemed  more  reason  to  believe  that  I  was  operated  upon 
than  that  I  operated  —  in  other  words,  the  automatic  writing  was  less  mine 
than  I  had  supposed.” 

At  the  next  sitting,  a  few  days  later,  she  again  alluded  to  the 
process,  and,  speaking  of  having  thought  of  it  when  living  as  a 
possible  possession  of  all  persons,  significantly  added : — 

“  I  am  not  yet  convinced  that  this  is  my  error,  but  I  do  know  that  we  are 
companioned  and  aided  by  those  who  know  the  methods  of  the  transference 
of  thought.” 

Referring  to  the  subject  later,  when  mentioning  a  case  that  she 
had  known  before  her  death  but  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know, 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY 


loi 


a  case  of  suddenly  induced  anaesthesia  during  an  apparently  nor¬ 
mal  state,  she  said :  — 

"  It  may  be  that  these  cases  of  anaesthesia  were  produced  by  contact  with 
superior  intelligence.  That  I  am  now  investigating  on  this  side.  While 
one  may  not  be  conscious  of  such  state  of  anaesthesia,  it  may  still  exist; 
and,  if  this  be  true,  the  spirit  mediation  theory  is  possible,  even  in  these 
extreme  cases  where  it  seemed  as  if  telepathy  were  proven  beyond  a 
doubt.  ” 

On  the  whole  these  statements  are  rather  evidential,  though  other 
minds  than  her  own  may  have  contributed  to  the  formal  embodi¬ 
ment  of  the  thought.  But  the  statements  distinctly  affirm  the 
possibility  of  the  intervention  of  spirits  in  every  form  of  telepathy. 
If  that  be  conceded,  we  should  explain  away  telepathy  by  spirits, 
rather  than  spirits  by  telepathy  as  the  popular  skepticism 
would  do. 

Since  I  wrote  this  work  and  while  it  is  going  through  the  press, 
I  have  been  experimenting,  by  cross  reference,  with  two  cases  where 
“  telepathy  ”  and  the  “  malicious  animal  magnetism  ”  of  Christian 
Science  would  be  the  assumed  explanation,  and  I  have  obtained 
evidence  of  spiritistic  intervention  in  the  phenomena. 

We  may  revert  to  apparitions  as  corroborating  such  a  view.  I 
do  not  mean  that  all  apparitions  superficially  indicate  it;  but  there 
are  instances  too  complicated  to  be  explicable  by  the  orthodox 
theory  of  telepathy.  Some  of  the  apparitions  are  premonitory  of 
coming  events,  or  indicative  of  approaching  death ;  and  premoni- 
tions  are  not  telepathic.  But  even  when  not  premonitory,  many  of 
them  —  for  example,  visions  of  the  dying  and  apparitions  of  the 
dead  —  suggest  the  intervention  of  the  dead  as  their  most  natural 
explanation.  Some  of  them  show  complications  too  teleological  for 
telepathy,  which  shows  no  evidence  of  purpose.  For  instance,  I 
know  of  a  subject  who  frequently  had  prenpnitions  of  coming 
deaths  in  the  family.  On  one  occasion  she  saw  an  apparition  of 
her  deceased  sister,  But  immediately  afterward  she  saw  an  appari¬ 
tion  of  her  living  aunt;  in  a  few'  days  her  aunt  died.  The  sister 
was  apparently  endeavoring  to  forewarn  the  subject  of  coming 
events.  In  another  case,  a  lady  saw  an  apparition  of  her  living 
husband,  but  felt  the  presence  of  her  deceased  father;  her  husband 


ic2  CONTACT  Wri  H  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

died  a  few  days  later.  On  another  occasion  some  months  later 
the  same  subject  saw  an  apparition  of  a  heavy  man  walk  through 
her  door  and  fall  down  from  drunkenness.  At  first  she  thought 
it  was  her  father;  but  she  later  saw  that  it  was  the  renter  of  her 
houses,  who  afterwards  became  the  cause  of  her  losing  the  income 
on  which  she  lived.  Her  father  came  apparently  to  forecast  some 
misfortune.  The  point  is,  that  the  apparitions  of  the  living  in  these 
instances  were  caused  by  the  dead. 

The  very  nature  of  apparitions  suggests  an  identity  in  this  char¬ 
acter  that  demands  a  single  explanation.  If  the  three  classes 
require  the  same  general  explanation,  that  explanation  must  to  some 
extent  include  the  discarnate.  Apparitions  of  the  dead  cannot  be 
explained  by  telepathy  between  the  living;  even  some  apparitions 
of  the  living  cannot  easily  be  explained  by  telepathy  without  invok¬ 
ing  the  intervention  of  the  dead.  We  may  therefore  be  obliged 
to  invoke  the  intervention  of  the  discarnate  to  explain  the  three 
types  of  phenomena  whose  unity  is  indicated  by  their  character¬ 
istics. 

But  I  am  not  prepared  strenuously  to  defend  any  such  thesis. 
We  have  not  the  evidence  to  assert  that  all  telepathic  coincidences 
are  due  to  the  intervention  of  spirits.  Nor  indeed  is  it  either  neces¬ 
sary  or  desirable  that  we  should  insist  on  this  point  in  our  defence 
of  a  spiritistic  theory.  We  could  hardly  expect  supernormal  phe¬ 
nomena  to  be  limited  to  the  intervention  of  the  dead.  Some 
supernormal  phenomena  might  happen  between  the  living  alone.  It 
is  enough  to  extort  the  admission  that  telepathy  may  be  the  name 
for  a  process  which  is  sometimes  incarnate  and  sometimes  dis¬ 
carnate.  If  we  have  souls,  occasional  instances  of  transcendental 
connection  between  the  living  would  be  likely  to  happen.  Telepa¬ 
thy  as  a  connection  between  minds  without  the  intervention  of 
sense-perception  makes  the  existence  of  a  soul  so  probable  that  we 
may  well  consider  many  instances  of  the  supernormal  as  due  to 
its  activity  in  this  life;  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  connect  dis¬ 
carnate  spirits  with  many  other  phenomena  than  the  intercommuni¬ 
cation  between  two  worlds. 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  fact  of  telepathy,  though  no 
explanation  of  it  has  been  found,  is  that  normal  sense-perception 


INSTANCES  OF  TELEPATHY  103 

is  not  our  only  source  of  knowledge.  Materialism  must  stand  or 
fall  with  the  evidence  for  the  limitation  of  knowledge  to  sense- 
perception;  and  telepathy,  if  it  applies  to  information  acquired  at 
great  distances,  is  a  complete  refutation  of  that  theory.  If  we  do 
not  accept  the  large  body  of  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits, 
we  are  obliged  to  substitute  for  that  view  the  theory  of  telepathy, 
which  is  in  itself  a  guarantee  of  a  transcendental  world  of  some 
kind,  since  it  implies  that  the  brain  is  not  the  sole  condition  of 
consciousness. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING 


The  popular  terms  for  the  method  of  communicating  with 
the  dead  are  automatic  writing,  raps,  table-tipping,  planch- 
ette  writing,  spelling  by  the  ouija  board,  impressions,  and 
the  more  technical  terms  of  clairvoyance  and  clairaudience.  All 
but  the  last  two  take  their  names  from  the  physical  instruments  or 
the  physical  means  employed  in  the  work.  The  last  two  are  names 
for  peculiar  phenomena  in  vision  and  hearing,  which  will  be  more 
fully  described  a  little  later. 

Automatic  writing  is  distinguished  from  ordinary  writing  only 
in  being  unconscious  or  involuntary.  Only  certain  tests,  such  as 
trance  or  anaesthesia,  or  the  testimony  of  a  trustworthy  subject, 
will  decide  whether  a  person  is  writing  automatically.  Many  peo¬ 
ple  suppose  that  automatic  writing  is  always  the  act  of  some  foreign 
intelligence,  but  it  is  not  necessarily  so.  It  may  always  be  the  un¬ 
conscious  act  of  the  subject  himself,  even  though  we  suppose  that  the 
instigating  cause  is  foreign.  Popularly,  however,  it  is  assumed  to 
be  due  to  the  direct  action  of  spirits,  and  even  some  scientific  men 
maintain  that,  if  spirits  are  connected  with  it  at  all,  they  are  the 
direct  cause  of  it.  The  matter,  however,  is  not  so  simple  as  it 
seems,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see  later.  The  factor  that 
makes  it  appear  to  be  the  direct  act  of  foreign  intelligence  is  the 
exclusion  of  normal  consciousness  and  intention.  We  naturally 
assume  that  anything  not  done  by  ourselves  voluntarily  is  not 
done  by  ourselves  at  all,  and  if  our  ego  were  defined  by  our  con¬ 
scious  and  voluntary  acts,  as  the  Cartesian  philosophy  would  have 
us  believe,  this  view  would  be  correct.  But  since  the  time  of  Des¬ 
cartes  we  have  learned  that  there  is  a  whole  territory  of  unconscious 
actions  instigated,  at  least  apparently,  by  unconscious  processes  of 
the  mind.  These  acts  may  not  be  due  to  spirits  at  all.  The  sub¬ 
conscious  is  presumed  to  lie  between  the  fields  of  spirit  agency  and 

104 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  105 

the  normally  conscious  and  voluntary  actions  of  the  mind.  Whether 
in  this  region  mental  states  and  acts  may  be  originated  with¬ 
out  foreign  stimulus  is  debatable,  but  in  the  absence  of  evidence  for 
this  instigation  we  have  to  assume  that  subconscious  acts  explain 
the  facts,  especially  when  the  knowledge  manifested  or  action  per¬ 
formed  is  entirely  within  the  range  of  normal  acc]uisition.  But  if 
information  not  normally  acquired  is  conveyed  by  this  automatic 
writing  the  subconscious  certainly  cannot  be  more  than  the  vehicle 
or  medium  of  its  transmission.  It  is  this  foreign  origin  that  gives 
the  impression  of  direct  control  by  spirits  and  so  leads  to  the  sup¬ 
posed  significance  of  automatic  writing. 

But  the  psychic  researcher  is  interested  in  automatic  writing 
primarily  as  a  supernormal  phenomenon,  whatever  the  source  of 
the  information  conveyed  by  it.  The  process  is  probably  very 
complex,  as  even  normal  writing  is;  but  it  involves  at  least  one 
more  factor  than  normal  writing  —  that  the  stimulus  to  it  may  be  not 
internal  but  external  to  the  organism.  Whenever  it  is  connected 
with  supernormal  knowledge,  we  have  to  invoke  foreign  agency 
as  at  least  one  factor  in  the  explanation.  What  goes  on  between 
the  original  impulse  from  foreign  intelligence  and  the  final  act  of 
writing  we  may  not  know  any  more  than  we  know  what  goes  on 
between  the  initial  volition  to  write  and  the  actual  motion  of  the 
muscles  of  the  hand. 

The  methods  of  table-tipping,  the  planchette  and  the  ouija  board 
are  only  modifications  of  automatic  writing.  Many  people  sup¬ 
pose  that  there  is  some  mystery  or  virtue  about  the  ouija,  which 
enables  it  to  spell  out  messages  from  other  minds.  They  do  not 
reflect  that  the  same  process  is  involved  in  all  the  methods  named. 
The  muscular  system  of  the  operators  is  in  action  in  each  of  them 
in  the  same  way.  The  instrument  or  means  of  expression  has  noth¬ 
ing  to  do  with  the  result,  when  the  human  organism  must  inter¬ 
vene  in  the  phenomena.  There  is  no  mysterious  power  in  the 
ouija,  the  planchette,  or  the  table,  any  more  than  there  is  in  the 
pencil.  They  are  all  agents  or  media,  as  they  are  in  normal  action 
of  the  same  kind.  The  actual  evidence  for  the  supernormal  lies, 
not  in  the  action  of  automatic  writing,  of  the  ouija  or  planchette, 
or  of  the  table,  but  in  the  contents  of  the  message.  If  the  content 


io6  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

represents  norm.a.lly  acquired  information,  we  explain  the  message 
by  subconscious  action  of  the  writer’s  mind.  If  the  content  is  un¬ 
mistakably  foreign  to  normal  experience,  we  seek  for  the  external 
stimulus  or  mind  that  may  account  for  it.  The  method  of  delivery 
is  of  secondary  importance. 

Another  method  of  communication  is  by  raps.  They  are  not 
always  connected  with  the  motor  action  of  the  psychic.  No  doubt 
some  raps  are  simply  ordinary  automatisms  like  automatic  writing 
and  other  unconscious  actions.  But  they  are  often  independent 
of  any  intervention  by  the  human  organism  as  revealed  to  sense- 
perception.  They  are  used  as  signals  of  answers  to  questions; 
and,  being  foreign  to  either  conscious  or  unconscious  action  of  the 
organism,  another  explanation  must  be  sought  for  them  than  for 
automatic  writing.  The  latter  assumes  at  least  the  intervention 
of  the  physical  organism  with  its  powers  and  habits.  But  raps  may 
involve  no  such  intermediary;  and  in  this  case  they  must  be  regarded 
as  independent  physical  phenomena.  They  can  be  used  only  for 
answers  to  questions  or  for  spelling  out  words  in  various  ways. 
Their  method  of  communication  is  crude,  in  the  sense  that  it  takes 
time  and  trouble  to  get  intelligible  messages;  but  they  signify  the 
possibility  of  communication  with  an  outside  world  without  the 
mediation  of  the  subconscious  or  normal  machinery  of  the  human 
organism. 

Clairvoyance  and  clairaudience  are  very  different  processes. 
Clairaudience  is  the  hearing  of  apparently  foreign  messages,  by 
means  of  voices,  usually  “  internal  voices.  ”  Possibly  they  are 
sometimes  apparently  external,  but  since  those  who  experience  the 
facts  are  not  always  adept  in  analyzing  and  describing  the  ex¬ 
periences,  we  are  not  sure  that  the  experiences  are  other  than  sub¬ 
jective  or  hallucinatory,  though  the  stimulus  may  be  foreign.  Both 
clairaudience  and  clairvoyance  are  sensory  phenomena,  unconnected 
with  motor  action,  whereas  automatic  writing  and  other  forms  of 
communication,  except  independent  raps,  are  connected  with  the 
motor  functions. 

Clairvoyance,  however,  is  a  term  that  does  duty  for  three  dis¬ 
tinct  types  of  phenomena,  (i)  It  denotes  generally  the  power 
of  mediumship  in  so  far  as  the  messages  are  obtained  by  impres- 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  107 

sions  or  visual  pictures.  It  is  even  very  often  used  to  denote  any 
t^'pe  of  communication  with  the  dead,  and  so  is  made  synonymou.s 
with  mediumship,  excluding  purely  physical  phenomena.  (2)  It 
is  more  technically  used  to  denote  the  acquisition  of  foreign  infor¬ 
mation  through  visual  phantasms,  as  clairaudience  is  used  to  denote 
auditory  hallucinations  of  the  veridical  type.  (3)  Lastly,  still 
more  technically,  it  denotes  the  perception  of  concealed  physical 
objects  whose  whereabouts  are  not  known  by  any  living  being.  It 
represents  the  visual  perception,  transcendental  in  nature,  of  facts 
or  things  that  cannot  be  known  through  telepathy.  It  presupposes 
supernormal  perception  at  a  distance,  and  excludes  all  mind-reading. 
This  is  the  more  technical  conception  of  the  process.  Telaesthesia 
is  probably  a  better  term  for  this  conception  of  clairvoyance. 

There  is  another  popular  conception  of  communication  with  the 
dead,  which  gives  rise  to  the  errors  regarding  the  physical  means 
of  communication.  This  popular  notion  is  that  the  communica¬ 
tion  is  quite  like  our  own  communication  with  each  other.  The  cir¬ 
cumstance  that  it  comes  in  speech  or  writing  or  some  use  of  the 
physical  organism  creates  the  impression  that  the  process  is  a 
mere  substitution  of  the  discarnate  spirit  for  our  own  in  the  use 
of  the  human  organism.  This  is  not  true,  despite  the  appearances 
to  that  effect.  Superficial  characteristics  make  it  appear  as  if  a 
spirit  simply  took  hold  of  the  physical  organism  and  used  it  just 
as  the  living  personality  uses  it.  On  the  contrary,  the  subconscious 
does  not  cease  to  function;  and,  when  the  normal  consciousness  is 
made  the  vehicle  of  the  communications,  no  part  of  living  control 
is  lost.  The  popular  misconception  leads  to  the  interpretation  of 
messages  as  if  they  were  not  colored  by  the  mind  which  serves  as 
the  medium  of  transmission,  an  assumption  which  is  provably  false. 
There  is  nothing  clearer  to  investigators  than  the  fact  that  all 
messages  are  affected  by  the  mind  of  the  medium,  normal  or  sublim¬ 
inal,  according  to  the  conditions  under  which  communication  takes 
place.  If  the  messages  come  through  normal  consciousness,  the 
form  of  the  message  wifi  be  deeply  affected.  Memories,  interpreta¬ 
tion,  and  language  determine  the  form  of  the  message.  To  some 
extent  the  subconscious  will  affect  it  in  the  same  way  in  a  trance, 
when  normal  consciousness  is  suspended.  Control  of  the  living 


io8  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

organism  is  either  indirect  or  totally  wanting  when  the  communica¬ 
tions  are  going  on,  except  possibly  in  exceptional  cases  of  posses¬ 
sion,  such  as  the  “  Watseka  Wonder.”  (See  Myer’s  “Human 
Personality  and  its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,”  Volume  I,  pp.  360- 
368.)  In  most  cases  at  least  the  influence  of  the  living  mind  on 
the  results  is  such  that  it  gives  rise  in  the  scientific  mind  to  doubts 
about  actual  spirit  communication,  but  only  because  it  has  borrowed 
from  the  popular  mind  a  preconception  of  what  communication 
would  be  if  it  took  place  at  all  —  namely;  that  the  communication 
would  be  direct  and  like  nonnal  intercourse  with  the  living. 

Normal  communication  among  the  living  is  a  species  of  mimicry. 
This  mimicry  is  not  apparent  in  language ;  but  when  language  can¬ 
not  be  employed,  we  quickly  resort  to  some  form  of  symbolism 
that  is  a  modification  of  mimicry.  In  this  way  we  instigate  more 
or  less  the  same  thoughts  in  others  as  in  ourselves;  but  we  do  not 
communicate  or  transmit  thoughts.  We  transmit  only  mechanical 
effects  from  one  organism  to  another,  and  the  mind  connected  with 
that  organism  interprets  the  effect  in  accordance  with  its  own  ex¬ 
perience  in  sense-perception. 

The  external  and  superficial  characteristics  of  the  phenomena 
purporting  to  be  communications  from  the  dead,  especially  auto¬ 
matic  writing  and  automatic  speech,  very  strongly  suggest  the  same 
process ;  and,  as_the  popular  mind  assumes  that  thoughts  and  ideas 
are  actually  transmitted  from  one  person  to  another,  it  very  nat¬ 
urally  supposes  that  communication  with  the  dead  is  direct  trans¬ 
mission  of  ideas.  But  careful  examination  of  the  facts  makes  it 
quite  clear  that  there  is  a  radical  difference,  despite  the  resemblances 
between  spiritistic  and  normal  communication.  The  fact  that  no 
thoughts  are  directly  transmitted  between  the  living,  unless  we  ad¬ 
mit  telepathy  as  an  exception,  gives  us  pause  in  our  assumptions 
about  the  process,  and  further  examination  reveals  complications 
that  show  the  process  to  be  wholly  different  from  normal  inter¬ 
course. 

We  can  describe  certain  steps  in  the  process  of  normal  inter¬ 
course  or  conveyance  of  ideas.  There  is  first  the  idea  in  the  mind, 
which  will  usually  take  the  form  of  a  mental  picture  or  a  series  of 
pictures.  Next,  there  is  the  volition  to  express  the  idea  in  words. 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  109 

The  word  is  recalled  and  the  vocal  organs  are  moved  to  convert  it 
into  physical  sound.  There  are  no  doubt  intermediate  stages  be¬ 
tween  the  thought  and  the  vocal  expression ;  but  what  goes  on  in  the 
nerve  filaments  connecting  the  brain  centers  with  the  vocal  organ¬ 
ism  is  purely  conjectural.  When  the  sound  is  produced  it  is  con¬ 
veyed  from  the  person  talking  to  the  recipient  of  the  sound,  who 
receives  an  auditory  sensation,  which  he  interprets.  The  sound  is 
a  symbol,  which  we  interpret  as  meaning  the  same  experience  for 
the  communicator  as  for  the  listener.  In  this  way  we  learn  his 
idea,  but  only  by  reproducing  it  from  our  experience,  not  by  having 
it  directly  transmitted  to  us. 

The  process  of  communication  with  spirits  includes  all  these  and 
no  one  knows  how  many  more  complications.  We  need  not  go  be¬ 
yond  telepathy  between  the  living  to  see  that  the  process  is  very  dif¬ 
ferent  from  norrnal  communication.  Telepathy  does  not  involve 
any  known  stimulus  upon  the  sense-organs.  W'hat  its  process  is  we 
do  not  know.  We  only  know  that  it  does  not  affect  the  sensory  ap¬ 
paratus  as  does  a  physical  stimulus. 

The  various  methods  recognized  by  laymen  and  set  up  as  mys¬ 
terious  do  not  appear  to  the  psychologist  to  be  of  any  importance  in 
determining  the  nature  of  the  process  of  communicating  with  the 
dead;  hence  he  seeks  some  further  characteristic  which  will  mal<e 
the  phenomena  intelligible.  He  notices  first  that  all  the  ptienomena 
can  be  reduced  to  two  types,  motor  and  sensory.  The  motor  type  is 
manifested  in  automatic  writing,  planchette,  ouija  board,  and  table¬ 
tipping.  The  sensory  type  is  exhibited  in  apparitions,  clairvoy¬ 
ance,  clairaudience,  and  other  sensory  phantasms,  whether  of  touch, 
taste  or  smell.  The  relation  between  the  sensory  and  the  motor 
types  will  be  the  subject  of  later  consideration.  At  present  we  need 
only  note  that  the  essential  feature  of  the  process  is  most  likely  to 
be  found  in  a  characteristic  common  to  the  two  types  of  phenomena. 
We  shall  first  consider  the  sensory  type,  and  may  there  find  a  clue 
to  what  goes  on  in  the  motor  type. 

We  cannot  read  ancient  literature.  Oriental,  Hebrew,  Greek,  or 
Roman,  without  observing  evidence  of  zisions,  though  only  in 
recent  times  have  they  become  intelligible.  The  influence  of  science 
for  several  centuries,  with  its  accusation  of  hallucination  and  de- 


no  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


lusion  to  account  for  every  event  inexplicable  by  material  forces, 
has  deprived  the  term  vision  of  its  original  meaning.  From  the 
beginning  of  organized  psychic  research,  the  idea  that  a  medium 
saw  what  she  claimed  to  see  was  disparaged  or  ridiculed.  The 
claim  was  regarded  as  evidence  of  fraud,  or  of  hysterical  hallucina¬ 
tions  or  delusions.  But  psychic  researchers  found  what  they  called 
veridical  hallucinations,  experiences  related  to  external  events,  often 
unknown  to  the  subject,  in  a  manner  to  give  the  hallucination  a 
significance  much  more  important  than  that  attaching  to  subjective 
hallucinations.  The  psychologist  and  psychiatrist  had  always  re¬ 
garded  hallucinations  as  caused  by  some  intraorganic  stimulus,  and 
the  resultant  hallucination  was  supposed  merely  to  simulate  reality. 
But  veridical  hallucinations  were  referable  to  an  external  cause 
to  which  they  bore  a  relation  like  that  of  normal  sensation  to  its 
stimulus. 

It  was  discovered  very  early  in  the  investigation  that  telepathic 
subjects  had  apparently  visual  perceptions  when  receiving  the  im¬ 
pressions  presumably  created  by  the  thoughts  of  the  agent.  The 
existence  of  these  sensory  phantasms  is  not  questioned,  though 
they  are  probably  often  subjective  instead  of  veridical.  If  tele¬ 
pathy  of  any  kind  has  been  proved,  the  existence  of  veridical  hal¬ 
lucinations  has  equally  been  proved.  Apparitions  illustrate  the 
same  phenomenon;  and,  indeed,  from  the  outset  of  their  investiga¬ 
tion  it  was  apparent  that  many,  if  not  all,  of  them  must  be  classed 
as  sensory  hallucinations,  veridical  or  subjective.  Mr.  Myers  and 
Mr.  Edmund  Gurney  conceived  them  after  this  fashion.  On  this 
understanding,  we  may  concede  to  the  skeptic  the  phantasmal  char¬ 
acter  of  the  experience,  and  yet  insist  on  its  definite  relation  to  an 
external  cause.  The  phantasm  may  not  at  all  adequately  represent 
that  objective  cause.  On  this  assumption  the  paradoxes  of  the 
situation  disappear;  for  instance,  spirit  clothes  which  have  been 
so  sore  a  perplexity  to  the  average  man,  no  longer  present  any 
difficulties.  To  conceive  apparitions  as  veridical  hallucinations  or 
phantasms,  is  only  to  translate  into  mental  terms  what  had  be¬ 
fore  seemed  to  be  physical  or  quasi-physical  phenomena.  The  as¬ 
surance  that  there  is  a  foreign  or  external  cause  of  the  appearance, 
guarantees  the  existence,  though  not  the  characteristics,  of  spirits. 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  in 


These  considerations  prepared  the  way  for  a  more  extensive 
application  of  the  conception  to  the  problem  of  communication  with 
the  dead.  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Gurney  and  Mr.  Myers  fully  ap¬ 
preciated  the  meaning  of  this  new  discovery,  though  they  did  not 
develop  it  into  a  completely  expressed  doctrine.  However  this  may 
be,  it  is  certain  that,  though  I  knew  that  their  conception  of  appari¬ 
tions  and  of  telepathy  involved  the  idea  of  veridical  hallucinations, 
I  did  not  see  the  full  significance  of  the  theory  until  I  had  com¬ 
munication  with  Professor  James  after  his  death.  I  then  saw  what 
the  founders  of  the  Society  had  meant  by  their  doctrine  of  veridical 
hallucinations.  I  thought  at  first  that  the  theory  was  my  own,  but 
I  soon  discovered  my  mistake ;  later  it  became  apparent  that  Sweden¬ 
borg  had  anticipated  all  of  us,  though  he  had  not  worked  out  his 
ideas  scientifically. 

So  much  for  the  development  of  the  theory.  What  was  neces¬ 
sary  in  ascertaining  the  process  of  communicating  was  to  consider 
something  more  than  the  physical  means  of  delivering  the  mes¬ 
sages.  It  was  evident  that  the  process  involved  more  than  the 
physical  instrument,  and  that  something  unusual  was  at  the  bottom 
of  the  process.  The  most  obtrusive  fact  was  that  the  two  general 
forms  of  communication,  sensory  and  motor,  corresponded  to  the 
two  channels  by  which  the  mind  is  connected  with  the  physical 
world.  In  the  sensory  field  the  most  conspicuous  phenomenon  is 
clairvoyance;  but  it  is  apparent  to  the  student  of  psychology  that 
auditory  phenomena  represent  in  reality  the  same  type.  The  voices 
are  as  veridical  as  the  visions.  Consequently,  all  sensory  contacts 
with  the  discarnate  world  are  simply  veridical  phantasms,  visual, 
auditory,  tactual,  olfactory,  or  gustatory,  and,  perhaps  we  may 
add,  emotional.  The  main  point  is,  that  supernormal  sensory  ex¬ 
periences  are  all  of  the  same  type  and  reducible  to  a  single  law,  ex¬ 
pressed  by  the  pictographic  process.  This  process  means,  that  the 
communicator  manages  to  elicit  in  the  living  subject  a  sensory 
phantasm  of  his  thoughts,  representing,  but  not  necessarily  directly 
corresponding  to,  the  reality.  The  motor  process,  giving  rise  to 
automatic  writing,  does  not  represent  anything  pictographic,  though 
pictographic  processes  may  precede  it.  What  chiefly  interests  us 
here,  however,  is  the  development  of  the  process  which  expressed 


112  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

itself  in  sensory  imagery  and  which,  interpreted  after  the  analogies 
of  sense-perception,  gave  the  impression  that  the  spiritual  world 
was  a  quasi-material  reality. 

I  must  now  let  the  records  tell  their  own  story;  they  will  at  the 
same  time  illustrate  the  difficulties  of  communicating.  The  main 
object  is,  to  give  those  facts  which  are  more  or  less  evidential  of  the 
pictographic  process  and  its  importance,  while  they  also  represent 
actual  communications  on  the  question  itself. 

A  friend  of  Dr.  Hodgson,  whom  in  his  report  he  calls  George 
Pelham,  died  in  1892,  while  Dr.  Hodgson  was  carrying  on  his 
experiments  with  Mrs.  Piper.  She  knew  nothing  about  the  man, 
though  he  had  had  one  sitting  with  her.  By  communications  be¬ 
gun  about  two  weeks  after  his  death,  of  which  Mrs.  Piper  was 
probably  uninformed,  he  finally  was  able  to  convince  Dr.  Hodgson 
of  the  scientific  truth  of  the  spiritistic  theory.  G.  P.,  as  he  is  called 
in  the  records,  gave  excellent  proof  of  his  personal  identity,  and 
showed  himself  desirous  of  telling  all  he  could  about  the  problem 
that  Dr.  Hodgson  was  trying  to  solve.  In  the  course  of  his  ac¬ 
count  he  took  up  the  process  of  communication  and  the  mistakes 
and  confusions  in  the  messages.  The  following  statement  ap¬ 
pealed  to  Dr.  Hodgson  as  having  unusual  interest. 

“  Remember  we  share  and  always  will  have  our  friends  in  the 
dream-life,  that  is,  your  life  so  to  speak,  which  will  attract  us  for¬ 
ever  and  ever,  and  so  long  as  we  have  any  friends  sleeping  in  the 
material  world ;  —  you  to  us  are  more  like  as  we  understand  sleep, 
you  look  shut  up  in  prison,  and  in  order  for  us  to  get  into  com¬ 
munication  with  you,  we  have  to  enter  into  your  sphere,  as  one 
like  yourself  asleep.  This  is  just  why  we  make  mistakes,  as  you 
call  them,  or  get  confused  and  muddled,  so  to  put  it,  H.” 

This  statement,  with  its  reference  to  sleep  as  the  condition  for 
communicating,  as  well  as  further  incidental  evidence,  induced 
Dr.  Hodgson  to  apply  the  hypothesis  of  a  dream-state  in  the  spirit 
as  more  or  less  necessary  to  communication  with  the  living.  He 
worked  out  the  theory  at  some  length  in  his  report,  which  I  fol¬ 
lowed  with  further  evidence  and  defence.  Before  his  death.  Pro¬ 
fessor  James  knew  the  hypothesis  well  and  admitted  its  cogency, 
but  was  not  convinced  of  its  truth.  Very  soon  after  his  death  and 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  113 

in  an  early  communication  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  who  knew 
nothing  about  his  views  on  this  specific  question,  he  made  the  follow¬ 
ing  statements,  after  referring  to  the  probable  interest  of  the  news¬ 
papers  in  his  “  new  revelation  ” ; 

“  It  opens  my  eyes  to  some  of  the  real  difficulties  in  the  way  of  actual 
communication  to  try  the  experiment  myself.” 

(Yes,  do  you  find  Hodgson  and  I  were  right  about  the  difficulties?) 

“  I  think  so,  but  it  is  too  early  for  me  to  have  positive  conclusions.” 

(All  right,  take  your  own  course.) 

”  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  some  of  the  messages  are  produced  without 
volition  and  they  are  caught  by  contact.  Hence  the  broken  and  imperfect 
utterance  on  paper.  Actual  and  complete  contact  would  make  the  circuit 
and  running  capacity  for  trains  of  thought.  Do  you  understand  my  ex¬ 
pression  ?  ” 

(Yes,  satisfactorily.) 

“I  desire  to  have  the  work  complete,  less  jerky  and  disjointed  than 
Richard  gave  us.” 

This  characteristic  passage,  reflecting  the  personal  identity  of 
Professor  James,  indicates  one  new  fact,  abundantly  illustrated 
since  that  time,  namely,  that  some  messages  are  involuntary.  The 
cause  of  this  involuntary  communication  was  indicated  later  in  a 
definite  way.  Nearly  a  month  later  Professor  James,  through 
Mrs.  Chenoweth,  spontaneously  took  up  the  matter  without  a  hint 
from  such  a  question  as  I  had  put  in  the  passage  quoted  above. 

“  I  seem  to  be  able  to  reason  while  I  am  at  work  and  that  pleases  me.  So 
much  of  the  work  recorded  in  the  past  lacked  that  function.” 

(That  is  correct.) 

“  It  always  stood  between  me  and  my  theories  of  what  ought  to  be 
and  often  I  said :  This  seems  more  like  snatches  of  broken  recollections 
detached  and  left  solitary  or  wandering  brain  — ”  [Pause.] 

(Actions  ?) 

“No,  photographs.  You  may  recall  what  I  am  trying  to  tell  you.” 

(Phantasms?) 

“Yes,  fugitive  phantasms,  unreal.” 

(I  understand.) 

“  Unattached,  floating  in  ethereal  waves,  caught,  retained,  expressed, 
as  if  by  subliminal  states  not  able  to  distinguish  between  the  attached  and 
unattached.  The  embodied  or  fugitive  phantasms.  This  I  was  forced 
to  consider  when  I  would  gladly  have  thrown  it  away  as  inadequate.” 

The  sudden  reference  to  “  photographs,”  accepted  as  phantasms 
after  I  had  so  interpreted  the  word,  was  an  interesting  allusion  to 


114  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  pictographic  process,  though  I  did  not  see  its  meaning  at  the 
time.  The  qualification  of  them  as  “  fugitive  ”  was  another  refer¬ 
ence  to  “  involuntary  messages.”  The  evident  allusion  to  marginal 
mental  pictures  was  not  apparent  to  me  at  the  time,  nor  the  meaning 
of  the  expression  “  fugitive  phantasms,”  which  was  an  epitome  of 
both  the  idea  of  involuntary  messages  and  of  the  pictographic 
process.  It  remained  for  G.  P.  to  make  the  matter  clear  later. 
Nearly  a  month  later  Dr.  Hodgson  took  up  the  subject  and  evi¬ 
dently  tried  to  clarify  it.  He  referred  to  the  desire  of  Professor 
James  in  his  communications  to  prevent  the  disjointed  character  of 
which  he  had  to  complain  when  living. 

"  Ills  one  desire  is  to  be  slow  and  let  nothing  come  that  is  not  his  own. 
No  fugitive  ideas  to  float  in  unawares  into  the  communications.  This  is 
not  a  new  phase  of  thought  to  you  and  me.  The  fugitive  expressions  you 
understand.” 

(Yes,  perfectly.) 

“  But  we  are  seeking  to  eliminate  all  that,  as  far  as  we  can  at  least,  but 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  completely  inhibit  one ’s  self  and  thought  and  let 
nothing  but  the  pure  present  expression  come.  Try  it  yourself  in  the 
ordinary  conversations  of  life  and  see  how  the  fugitive  drops  in  and  is 
constantly  bringing  misunderstandings  of  the  idea  you  are  trying  to 
express  to  your  most  intimate  friend.” 

The  “  fugitive  ”  in  this  instance  is  evidently  what  comes  from 
other  minds  present,  when  another  communicator  is  trying  to  .send 
messages;  but  the  second  reference  is  to  the  phenomenon  in  the 
mind  of  the  communicator.  The  allusion  to  the  inability  to  control 
one ’s  own  mind  assumes  the  possibility  of  “  fugitive  phantasms  ” 
from  both  the  mind  of  the  communicator  and  of  others  present. 
WTiile  the  passage  does  not  explicitly  recognize  involuntary  mes¬ 
sages,  it  implies  them.  Evidently  Dr.  Hodgson  was  not  able  to 
make  his  message  clear.  Two  days  later  Professor  James  re¬ 
curred  to  the  subject  and  made  clearer  what  he  wished  to  say. 

“  I  have  been  making  note  of  things  to  recall  here  and  it  is  possible  that 
some  will  be  dropped  in  without  special  relevance,  but  with  the  statement 
that  it  is  to  be  so.  You  understand.” 

(Yes  I  shall.) 

“  It  may  look  like  a  French  exercise  book,  but  it  is  to  be  done  with 
malice  aforethought.” 

(All  right,  all  the  malice  prepense  you  like.) 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  115 

“  So  it  will  be  absolved  from  the  charge  of  dreams,  dream  talk,  our 
old  theme,  a  theory  we  more  than  once  discussed  and  discarded  and  dis¬ 
cussed  again.” 

The  allusion  to  “  dream  talk  was  clearly  to  Dr.  Hodgson’s 
hypothesis,  suggested  by  the  communication  of  G.  P.  quoted  above, 
as  an  explanation  of  the  confusions  and  mistakes.  The  earlier 
reference  to  “  fugitive  phantasms  ”  was  an  attempt  to  explain  the 
same  fact,  but  the  communicator  got  no  further  with  the  problem 
at  this  time.  Some  days  later  he  took  it  up  again. 

“  Not  all  the  evidence  need  be  twaddle  nor  all  the  twaddle  evidence.” 

(Good.) 

”  It  is  the  spirit  of  a  man  which  survives,  all  that  makes  up  his  day,  his 
weeks  and  years,  tone,  the  quality,  and  I  desire  to  prove,  and  not  to  give  you 
a  sample  of  deteriorated  or  disintegrated  capacity.  Have  I  made  it  clear?  ” 

(Yes,  if  I  assume  that  you  have  to  overcome  a  trance  on  your  side.) 

“  I  am  not  entranced.” 

(All  right.  Is  there  danger  of  going  into  a  trance  on  your  side  and 
thus  of  preventing  communications?) 

“  On  that  subject  we  have  had  our  conversation  before.” 

(Yes,  how  much  is  true?) 

“  I  passed  into  this  life  and  we  were  obliged  to  assume  that  such  was 
the  case  for  two  reasons.  First,  we  were  informed  so  by  Imperator; 
second,  the  evidence  submitted  implied  as  much  in  many  instances.  But 
I  must  confess  that  the  trance  is  absent  in  my  case.” 

Again  we  meet  with  the  denial  of  the  trance  or  dream  state  as 
necessary  for  communications,  but  the  key  to  the  problem  is  still 
to  come,  and  it  was  given  by  G.  P.  some  months  later.  I  quote  his 
statement  in  full.  I  asked  a  question  and  G.  P.  seized  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  go  into  the  subject  of  immediate  response  to  such  queries 
and  the  difficulties  involved. 

“  Your  question  sets  thought  working,  but  after  a  while  I  will  tell  you 
if  I  can.” 

(All  right.  Go  ahead.) 

“One  good  thing  about  working  with  you  is  your  understanding  of  the 
difficulties  and  patience  with  us  and  we  are  never  afraid  to  tell  you  the 
exact  situation.  The  mental  action  is  just  the  same  here  as  with  you,  be¬ 
comes  visible  to  you  for  it  expresses  in  words.  The  body  is  a  cloak  for 
mental  processes.  Do  you  know  what  I  mean?” 

(I  can  get  sufficient  idea  not  to  worry  about  that.) 

“  Every  word  from  another  sets  a  train  of  thought  in  motion  and  if 
your  thoughts  find  visible  or  audible  e.xpression,  you  would  be  thought 


ii6  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


wandering  in  your  mind  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  but  the  whole 
process  is  almost  instantaneous,  and  so  you  are  saved  the  ignominy  of 
the  charge.  But  with  us  the  thoughts  are  found  on  the  paper  sometimes 
and  before  we  know  it,  and  so  it  takes  practice  and  will  to  keep  the 
line  steady  and  express  only  what  we  desire.  Much  of  the  past  in  various 
quarters  can  be  explained  in  this  statement.” 

I  saw  at  a  flash  what  this  remarkable  statement  meant.  If  our 
thoughts,  which  are  realized  in  mental  images,  whether  central  or 
marginal  or  both,  were  to  become  visible  or  audible  to  a  friend  in 
conversation  with  us,  as  they  would  if  they  were  transmitted  to 
him  as  veridical  phantasms,  they  would  make  him  think  that 
we  were  “  wandering  in  our  minds.”  This  idea,  taken  with  the 
denial  that  the  communicator  was  in  a  dream  state  and  that  the 
communicator  could  not  inhibit  the  expression  of  his  thoughts, 
together  with  the  reference  to  “  fugitive  phantasms  ”  or  marginal 
thoughts  whether  of  one’s  own  mind  or  that  of  others  present,  ex¬ 
plains  the  confusion  in  messages  and  shows  that  pictographic  phe¬ 
nomena  are  the  clue  to  the  understanding  of  the  problem.  I  saw 
the  whole  meaning  of  the  theory  of  Mr.  Gurney  and  Mr.  Myers 
about  veridical  phantasms.  If  we  add  the  idea  that  G.  P.  clearly 
perceives  what  is  going  on  all  the  time  in  all  minds,  living  or  dead,  to 
the  idea  that  transmission  takes  the  form  of  hallucinations  or  mental 
pictures,  we  have  an  explanation  of  clairvoyance  and  a  clear  idea 
of  the  process  of  communicating. 

It  required  but  an  extension  of  this  principle  to  the  other  senses, 
to  render  the  whole  field  intelligible,  in  so  far  as  sensory  functions 
are  concerned.  It  still  remained  to  be  ascertained  whether  the 
pictographic  process  lies  back  of  communication  by  motor  expres¬ 
sion.  The  process  is  less  clearly  apparent  in  motor  phenomena; 
but  further  communications  have  rendered  it  probable  that  mental 
pictures  lie  behind  the  motor  expression,  and  that  automatic  writ¬ 
ing  may  involve  special  difficulties  in  transmitting  the  thoughts  of 
the  communicator.  If  the  medium  have  the  habit  of  interpreting 
in  speech  her  own  visual  imagery,  she  may  be  qualified  to  transmit 
in  automatic  writing  the  thought  that  comes  to  her  mind  in 
pictures. 

This  pictographic  process  is  what  G.  P.  probably  meant  in  the 
passage  quoted  from  his  communications  through  Mrs.  Piper;  the 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  117 

message  was  possibly  distorted  in  the  transmission.  He  was  ap¬ 
parently  describing  the  similarity  between  the  living  and  the  de¬ 
ceased  mind  in  the  comparison  with  the  “  dream  life.”  This  is 
not  evident  on  the  surface  of  his  statement;  but,  when  we  consider 
that  the  spirits  have  access  to  our  minds  through  the  subconscious, 
which  is  well  described  as  the  “dream-life,”  and  that  the  subliminal 
of  Mrs.  Piper  either  did  not  catch  the  true  meaning  of  his  mes¬ 
sage  or  distorted  it  by  abbreviation,  we  can  realize  that  he  may 
have  been  trying  to  show  that  the  panoramic  stream  of  images  in 
the  communicator’s  mind,  both  central  and  marginal,  voluntary 
and  involuntary,  is  transmitted  to  the  mind  of  the  medium  and 
there  has  to  undergo  either  abbreviation  or  interpretation  and  se¬ 
lection.  In  this  way  arises  confusion  which  we  do  not  experience 
in  ordinary  intercourse  with  each  other  in  normal  life,  because 
we  can  inhibit  what  we  do  not  wish  conveyed  to  our  friend  in  con¬ 
versation. 

It  is  impossible  to  go  into  the  significance  of  this  pictographic 
process  with  adequate  detail.  Though  we  can  only  name  it  with¬ 
out  describing  the  intimate  nature  of  the  process,  we  can  understand 
that  it  makes  communication  more  intelligible  than  does  the  study 
of  the  mechanical  devices  or  methods  of  communication.  We  are 
nearer  the  heart  of  the  problem  when  we  are  able  to  recognize  a 
psychological  process  in  it.  We  do  not  know  in  detail  all  that  goes 
on,  but  when  we  can  conceive  that  a  mental  picture  in  the  mind  of 
a  communicator  is  transmitted,  perhaps  telepathically,  to  the  psychic 
or  to  the  control ;  even  though  we  do  not  know  how  this  occurs,  we 
can  understand  why  the  message  takes  the  form  that  it  does  in 
the  mind  of  the  psychic  and  why  the  whole  process  assumes  the 
form  of  a  description  of  visual,  or  a  report  of  auditory  images. 
The  whole  mass  of  facts  is  thus  systematized  as  a  single  process, 
whose  specific  form  of  transmission  is  determined  by  the  sense 
through  which  it  is  expressed. 

The  pictographic  process  was  not  apparent  in  the  work  of  Mrs. 
Piper,  except  in  the  transition  from  the  subliminal  to  the  normal 
state.  Here  she  was  a  spectator  of  transcendental  events  or  of  the 
phantasms  transmitted  to  her  mind  and  taken  for  realities.  But 
in  her  deep  trance  the  visual  functions  apparently  were  not  em- 


ii8  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ployed.  A  careful  examination  of  the  records  shows  that,  in  the 
deep  trance  for  automatic  writing,  she  was  the  recipient  of  auditory 
rather  than  visual  impressions,  and  hence  there  was  no  distinct 
evidence  of  the  pictographic  process  in  the  automatic  writing. 
Now  Mrs.  Chenoweth  is  par  excellence  a  visuel  only  and  nothing 
of  an  audile.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  showed  no  aptitude  for  auditory 
phantas'ms;  it  took  two  or  three  years  of  training  to  elicit  any  of 
them  to  help  out  the  meaning  of  the  visual  images,  which  she  re¬ 
ceived  with  comparative  ease.  The  association  of  the  two  is  a  great 
help  in  the  interpretation  of  messages,  as  it  is  in  ordinary  ex¬ 
perience. 

The  popular  mind  fails  to  appreciate  the  real  complexity  of  the 
problem.  It  assumes  that,  if  the  medium  is  honest  or  unconscious 
of  the  communications,  the  whole  material  comes  from  the  spirit ; 
it  does  not  take  into  account  the  subconscious  of  the  psychic,  the 
various  processes  of  the  mind  going  on  under  the  threshold  of 
consciousness.  But  when  we  introduce  into  the  problem  the  picto¬ 
graphic  process,  we  are  able  to  concentrate  attention  on  a  better 
conception  of  the  problem. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  pictographic  process  introduces  into  the 
communications  various  sources  of  mistake  and  confusion,  and 
thus  explains  much  that  the  ordinary  man  with  his  view  of  the 
messages  cannot  understand.  Mental  pictures  have  to  be  inter¬ 
preted,  either  by  the  control  or  by  the  subconscious  of  the  psychic, 
probably  by  both.  But  whether  interpreted  or  not,  and  whether 
the  subconscious  is  as  important  a  factor  in  the  result  as  the  mind 
of  the  control,  interest  is  centered  in  the  pictographic  process  itself, 
with  its  measure  of  identity  between  the  thought  of  the  communi¬ 
cator  and  of  the  percipient,  with  its  aptitude  for  bringing  confusion 
and  mistake  into  the  ultimate  form  of  the  messages. 

I  have  referred  to  the  control  as  another  mind  than  that  of  the 
psychic.  Laymen  usually  assume  that  the  whole  process  is  one 
between  the  spirit  and  the  medium,  or,  if  the  medium  is  in  a  trance, 
between  the  spirit  and  the  sitter.  The  process  is  in  reality  much 
more  complex.  The  pictographic  process  is  but  one  factor  in  a  com¬ 
plex  situation,  which  involves  not  only  the  mind  of  the  medium, 
conscious  and  subconscious;  but  also  the  mind  of  the  control.  A 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  119 

study  of  the  records  will  give  overwhelming  evidence  of  this  modi¬ 
fying  influence  on  all  messages. 

In  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  the  guides  distinguish  between 
what  they  call  the  direct  and  the  indirect  method  of  communicating. 
The  direct  method  seems  superficially  to  be  automatic  writing, 
though  it  is  more  than  that;  the  indirect  method  is  always  the  use 
of  the  pictographic  process,  which  requires  the  control  to  act  as  an 
intermediary  between  the  communicator  and  the  medium.  The 
communicator  simply  allows  his  mind  to  run  over  his  memories 
in  a  panoramic  form ;  these  are  transmitted  to  the  control  as 
veridical  phantasms,  and  are  there  interpreted,  and  either  trans¬ 
ferred  directly  by  automatic  writing  through  the  psychic  or  again 
through  her  subconscious  by  mental  pictures  and  reinterpreted 
there.  When  we  add  to  this  situation  the  fact  that  the  communi¬ 
cator  cannot  determine  just  what  shall  be  transmitted  to  the  con¬ 
trol  or  the  subconscious  of  the  psychic,  and  that  marginal  images 
in  the  mind  of  the  communicator  may  be  picked  up  instead  of  the 
central  or  intended  ones,  we  can  understand  why  the  messages  do 
not  always  give  the  impression  of  perfect  rationality  and  why  so 
much  real  or  apparent  confusion  occurs.  Every  message  has  to 
run  the  gauntlet  of  selection  in  the  mind  that  sends  it  and  in  the 
mind  that  receives  the  pictographic  images,  and  then  be  subject  to 
the  liabilities  of  misinterpretation  and  distortion,  by  the  minds  both 
of  the  control  and  of  the  psychic. 

But  the  complexities  do  not  end  here.  As  the  process  of  trans¬ 
mission  is  not  always  under  the  complete  regulation  of  either  con¬ 
trol  or  psychic,  there  are  evident  in  many  messages  phenomena  like 
“  crossed  wires  ”  on  the  telephone.  Sometimes  A,  cammunicating 
to  B  on  the  telephone,  unconsciously  transmits  his  message  to  some 
one  else  whose  wire  “  crosses  ”  with  A’s,  and  without  intention 
on  the  part  of  either  A  or  the  unknown  receiver  that  this  latter 
should  obtain  the  message;  mechanical  conditions  accidentally 
arise  in  which  the  words  of  A  are  picked  up  and  transmitted  to 
some  one  else.  Something  analogous  to  this  often  occurs  in  spir¬ 
itistic  messages.  Conditions  accidentally  arise  in  which  the 
thoughts  of  some  one  other  than  the  intended  communicator  are 
picked  up  and  transmitted  without  the  knowledge  of  either  the 


120  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

control  or  the  medium  that  it  is  the  wrong  message.  This  phe¬ 
nomenon  occurred  frequently  under  the  Phinuit  regime  with  Mrs. 
Piper.  Those  near  at  the  time  had  their  thoughts  unwittingly 
picked  up  and  transmitted,  with  a  resulting  impression  of  false  or 
irrelevant  messages.  Sometimes,  with  Mrs.  Piper,  there  would 
come  to  a  sitter  messages  that  were  wholly  false  to  him;  but,  on 
inquiry  of  a  previous  sitter,  it  was  found  that  the  statements  were 
true  of  that  person.  Whether  they  were  subliminal  resurgences  of 
previously  received  messages,  or  the  accidental  transmission  of 
present  thoughts  by  a  previous  communicator  who  happened  to  be 
present,  is  immaterial. 

Here  are  two  instances  in  my  work  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth ;  On 
one  occasion,  as  she  began  to  go  into  the  trance,  in  the  subliminal 
stage  when  she  sees  pictographic  phantasms  and  describes  them, 
she  saw  a  lady  whom  she  had  never  seen  or  known,  and  identified 
her  by  name ;  a  moment  later  she  remarked  that  Dr.  Hodgson  was 
standing  beside  her.  She  went  slowly  over  what  Dr.  Hodgson 
was  saying  to  her,  then  reached  for  the  pencil,  and  wrote  a  mes¬ 
sage  from  Dr.  Hodgson,  who  said  that  it  had  not  been  his  inten¬ 
tion  to  communicate.  In  the  other  instance,  a  lady  was  having  a 
sitting.  On  previous  days  her  father  and  mother  had  communi¬ 
cated.  On  this  day,  however,  some  one  else  began  a  series  of 
very  intimate  'messages.  As  soon  as  the  sitting  was  over  I  asked 
the  lady  if  the  messages  were  relevant;  she  said  that  they  were 
wholly  meaningless.  I  knew  the  communicator  by  the  signature 
of  his  pet  name  and  wrote  to  his  widow  to  ask  whether  the  mes¬ 
sages  were  correct.  Her  reply  was  that  they  were,  and  as  none 
of  us  present  knew  about  the  incidents  communicated,  they  had 
much  evidential  value,  though  they  were  wholly  irrelevant  to 
the  sitter. 

In  both  these  instances,  it  was  probably  the  diversion  of  the 
medium’s  subconscious  attention  from  the  persons  wanted  to  the 
person  in  whom  she  was  interested,  that  established  rapport  and 
gave  rise  to  irrelevant  messages.  It  is  the  business  of  the  controls 
to  prevent  or  inhibit  such  phenomena,  but  they  may  be  unsuccessful, 
either  because  of  the  diverted  attention  of  the  psychic  or  of  the 
greater  intensity  of  some  other  personality. 


THE  PROCESS  OF  COMMUNICATING  121 


But  the  process  is  yet  more  complex.  Often  a  whole  group  of 
controls  is  involved  in  the  effort  to  get  a  message  through  from 
a  given  person,  and  one  long  used  to  the  phenomena  can  detect 
evidence  of  their  cooperation  in  stray  messages  that  slip  through 
after  the  manner  of  indirect  messages  just  described;  cases  are 
even  on  record  in  which  there  is  marked  evidence  of  the  interfusion 
of  the  thoughts  of  two  or  more  persons  in  a  miessage  that  purports 
to  come  from  one  person.  This  interfusion  explains  the  failure 
to  discover  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  purported  communi¬ 
cator.  I  have  even  remarked  it  in  the  hand-writing,  which  showed 
the  characteristics  of  two  controls,  while  the  essential  characteris¬ 
tics  of  the  normal  hand-writing  of  the  medium  were  also  clearly 
discernible. 

To  imagine  the  pictographic  influences  of  a  dozen  minds  hovering 
around  a  psychic,  all  exposed,  like  a  delicate  mechanical  mechanism, 
to  various  undulations  and  influences,  is  to  form  some  conception 
of  the  difficulties  of  communication  between  the  discarnate  and  the 
incarnate.  It  is  probable  that  there  are  hidden  intermundane  con¬ 
ditions  and  processes  necessary  to  the  transmission  of  mental  pic¬ 
tures  or  to  the  transformation  of  the  thoughts  of  the  communi¬ 
cator  into  pictorial  impressions.  Future  investigation  must  fill 
in  the  remaining  gaps  between  the  thought  of  the  communicator  and 
the  picture  received  and  described  by  the  control. 

The  relation  of  the  pictographic  process  to  automatic  writing 
has  not  been  determined,  but  it  is  fair  to  imagine  that  it  may  bear 
some  resemblance  to  the  influence  of  our  own  mental  imagery  upon 
the  motor  system.  At  any  rate,  the  direct  method  involves  condi¬ 
tions  in  which,  whatever  place  the  control  still  preserves  in  the 
process,  he  is  either  not  so  near  the  psychic  or  can  let  the  com¬ 
municator’s  thought  influence  the  medium  more  directly  than  when 
receiving  the  pictorial  figures  and  interpreting  them.  The  picto¬ 
graphic  process  may  lie  behind  that  of  automatic  writing,  though 
its  presence  is  not  so  easily  detected  as  in  the  indirect  method. 


PART  III 


EVIDENCE  OF  SURVIVAL 


CHAPTER  XI 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS 

IT  has  frequently  been  the  accusation  that  experiences  purport¬ 
ing  to  represent  the  supernatural  are  confined  to  the  ignorant 
and  superstitious.  The  work  of  the  English  Society  has  been  a 
convincing  refutation  of  this  reproach;  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the 
respectability  and  intelligence  of  those  who  reported  the  facts  of 
their  experience.  It  is  true  enough  that  “  old  wives’  fables,”  and 
dreams  of  sailors,  porters,  and  coachmen  will  never  affect  the 
minds  of  scientific  psychologists,  for  obvious  reasons.  It  is  just 
as  true  that  experiences  from  these  classes,  if  subjected  to  cross¬ 
questioning  and  to  corroboration,  have  interest.  But  the  mere 
word  of  an  intelligent  person  secures  attention,  and  in  scien¬ 
tific  matters  may  often  go  far  to  silence  ridicule  or  to  invite  in¬ 
vestigation. 

The  first  instance  of  note  is  the  apparition  of  his  friend,  appear¬ 
ing  to  Lord  Brougham.  It  is  taken  from  “  Phantasms  of  the 
Living,”  where  it  was  copied  from  his  own  biography.  He  and 
a  friend  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh  had  discussed  the  immor¬ 
tality  of  the  soul,  and  had  signed  in  their  own  blood  an  agreement 
that  whichever  died  first  should  appear  to  the  other.  Soon  after 
they  left  the  University  the  friend  went  out  to  India  in  the  gov¬ 
ernment  service,  and  was  there  some  years ;  meanwhile  he  was  al¬ 
most  forgotten  by  Lord  Brougham.  The  latter  was  travelling  in 
Sweden  in  cold  weather,  and  at  about  i  p.  m.  he  was  taking  a  hot 
bath.  Suddenly  he  saw  an  apparition  of  his  friend  in  the  chair 
where  he  had  left  his  own  clothes.  He  got  out  of  the  bath ;  but, 
on  recovering  from  what  was  evidently  a  trance,  he  found  that  his 
friend  had  disappeared.  He  wrote  down  the  facts,  with  the  date, 
in  his  journal.  He  returned  to  Edinburgh ;  and  some  weeks  later 
received  a  letter  from  Ifldia,  bearing  the  same  date  as  that  re- 

125 


126  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

cording  his  experience  in  his  journal,  and  telling  of  the  death  of 
his  friend. 

]Mr.  Andrew  Lang  records  tha>t  he  once  saw  an  apparition  which 
he  took  for  Professor  Conington;  he  ascertained  afterwards  that 
the  time  coincided  very  closely  with  that  of  Professor  Conington’s 
death.  The  latter  was  one  hundred  miles  distant  at  the  time. 

James  Cotter  Morison,  a  literary  man  well-known  in  England, 
is  sponsor  for  an  incident  of  some  interest.  Pie  writes  to  the  au¬ 
thors  of  “  Phantasms  of  the  Living  ”  : 

“  My  mother  and  grandmother  were  together  in  the  dining  room 
of  their  house  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  occupied  in  some  domestic  mat¬ 
ter  which  made  the  exclusion  of  chance  visitors  desirable.  A  sud¬ 
den  knock  at  the  door  caused  my  grandmother  to  hasten  to  it  with 
a  view  to  taking  the  stranger  into  the  drawing  room.  The  knock 
was  heard  by  both  mother  and  daughter.  On  opening  the  door 
with  the  least  loss  of  time  possible,  my  grandmother  was  surprised 
to  find  not  only  no  one  there,  but  no  one  even  in  the  long  corridor 
which  led  to  the  drawing  room.  My  mother  distinctly  remembered 
the  look  of  astonishment  in  her  mother’s  face  as  she  returned  from 
the  door.  Nothing  more  was  said  on  the  subject,  but  in  a  short 
time  afterwards  a  letter  was  ^received  from  London  from  my 
grandmother’s  sister,  saying  that  she  (the  sister)  had  been  most 
seriously  ill,  at  death’s  door  indeed,  but  was  now  a  little  better, 
and  wished  my  grandmother  to  come  and  see  her.  The  latter 
went  up  to  town  and  found  her  sister  still  very  ill,  but  slowly  re¬ 
covering.  After  the  mutual  endearments  natural  to  such  an  occa¬ 
sion,  my  grandmother  said : 

“  ‘  Do  you  know,  such  a  strange  thing  occurred,  exactly  at  the 
time,  it  seems,  when  you  were  supposed  to  be  dead  or  dying.’ 

“  ‘  I  know  what  you  are  going  to  say,’  said  the  other.  ‘  When 
I  was  in  the  trance  which  was  mistaken  for  death,  I  thought  I  went 
to  your  house  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  knocked  at  your  drawing 
room  door.  You  opened  it  instantly  and  looked  much  affrighted 
at  not  seeing  me  or  any  one,  though  I  saw  you.’ 

“  The  singular  point  in  the  story  is  the  anticipation  by  the  one 
sister  of  what  the  other  was  going  to  say. 

“  No  theory  or  mference  was  ever  deduced  by  my  relations  from 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  127 

the  circumstance  and  it  was  only  mentioned  as  an  odd  coincidence 
by  them  and  their  friends,  who,  as  well  as  my  mother,  have  often 
told  me  the  story  ” 

Mr.  Morison  then  adds  that  his  grandmother  was  a  woman  of 
“  strong  understanding  ”  and  “  had  an  aversion  to  what  she  called 
superstition,  belief  in  ghosts,  etc.” 

G.  J.  Romanes,  the  contemporary  and  scientific  peer  of  Charles 
Darwin,  narrates  the  following  as  his  own  personal  experience.  As 
an  evolutionist,  his  name  is  known  the  world  over. 

“Towards  the  end  of  March,  1878,  in  the  dead  of  night,  while 
believing  myself  to  be  awake,  I  thought  the  door  at  the  head  of 
iiny  bed  was  opened  and  a  white  figure  passed  along  the  side  of  the 
bed  to  the  foot,  where  it  faced  about  and  showed  tne  it  was  cov¬ 
ered  head  and  all  in  a  shroud.  Then  with  its  hands  it  suddenly 
parted  the  shroud  over  the  face,  revealing  between  its  two  hands 
the  face  of  my  sister,  who  was  ill  in  another  room.  I  exclaimed 
her  name,  whereupon  the  figure  vanished  instantly.  Next  day 
(and  certainly  on  account  of  the  shock  given  me  by  the  above 
experience),  I  called  in  Sir  William  Jenner,  who  said  my  sister 
had  not  many  days  to  live.  (She  died,  in  fact,  very  soon  after¬ 
ward.) 

“  I  was  in  good  health,  without  any  grief  or  anxiety.  My  sis¬ 
ter  was  being  attended  by  our  family  doctor,  who  did  not  suspect 
anything  serious;  therefore  I  had  had  no  anxiety  at  all  on  her  ac¬ 
count,  nor  had  she  herself.” 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  reported  to  Mr.  Myers  four  different  ex¬ 
periences  which  represent  dissociation  or  split  consciousness.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  detail  them  here. 

Professor  J.  Estlin  Carpenter  reports  a  case  of  apparition  within 
his  own  knowledge,  though  it  is  not  evidential. 

Ben  Jonson  had  a  vision  of  his  son  “  with  a  bloodie  cross  upon 
his  forehead,”  coincidental  with  the  child’s  death  at  a  distance. 

Among  experiences  of  Americans,  the  first  case  of  interest  is 
that  of  James  G.  Blaine  as  told  by  Gail  Hamilton  in  a  little  brochure 
called  “  X-Rays/’  She  collected  there  a  large  number  of  signifi¬ 
cant  experiences ;  the  present  incident  is  connected  with  death  visions 
and  represents  two  different  persons  seeing  the  same  deceased  man 


128  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


or  an  apparition  of  him  at  different  titnes.  Mrs.  Coppinger  was 
the  daughter  and  Walker  was  the  son  of  James  G.  Blaine. 

“  Mrs.  Coppinger  died  two  weeks  after  the  death  of  her  brother 
Walker.  In  the  later  stages  of  her  illness,  she  more  than  once 
spoke  of  his  presence  and  tried  to  convince  others  of  it.  ‘  Do  not 
you  see  Walker?  ’  she  asked.  ‘  He  is  looking  at  you  as  if  he  loved 
you.’  When,  two  years  afterwards,  her  father  was  near  the  other 
world,  as  he  lay  quiet  and  silent  in  the  evening  dusk,  a  sorrowing 
watcher  said,  in  a  low.  voice,  ‘  I  am  dreading  all  the  time  to  hear 
him  talk  of  Walker.  Don’t  you  remember  Alice?’  The  next 
evening  at  the  same  hour  we  were  sitting  in  the  same  place,  when 
Mr.  Blaine  suddenly  exclaimed  ‘  Walker!  ’  in  the  familiar  tone  of 
slight,  pleasant  surprise.” 

Such  visions  are  not  necessarily  premonitory  of  death,  though 
they  are  invariably  indications  that  the  pverson  is  near  death.  He  or 
she  may  recover,  but  as  the  larger  proportion  of  people  so  near 
death  actually  die,  the  popular  belief  has  arisen  that  such  visions 
are  premonitions. 

Carl  Schurz,  an  officer  in  the  Civil  War  and  afterwards  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Senate  from  Missouri,  tells  the  following  ex¬ 
perience  in  his  “  Memoirs,”  which  were  published  in  “  McClure’s 
Magazine  ”  for  April,  1908.  He  was  a  scholar  of  the  best  type  as 
well  as  an  able  statesman. 

“  On  the  way  to  Washington,  something  strange  happened  to  me 
which  may  be  of  interest  to  the  speculative  psychologist.  In  Phil¬ 
adelphia  I  had  supper  at  the  home  of  my  intimate  friend,  Mr.  Tiede- 
mann,  son  of  the  eminent  professor  of  medicine  at  the  University 
of  Heidelberg,  and  brother  of  Colonel  Tiedemann,  one  of  whose 
aides-de-camp  I  had  been  during  the  siege  of  the  Fortress  of  Rastatt 
in  1849.  Mrs.  Tiedemann  was  a  sister  of  Frederick  Hecker,  the 
famous  revolutionary  leader  in  Germany,  who  in  this  country  had 
rendered  distinguished  service  as  a  Union  officer.  The  Tiedemanns 
had  lost  two  sons  in  our  army,  one  in  Kansas,  and  the  other,  a 
darling  boy,  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  The  mother,  a  lady  of  a 
bright  mind  and  a  lively  imagination,  happened  to  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  a  circle  of  spiritualists,  and  received  ‘  messages  ’ 
from  her  two  sons,  which  were  of  the  ordinary  sort,  but  which 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  129 

moved  her  so  much  that  she  became  a  believer.  The  Doctor, 
too,  although  belonging  to  a  school  of  philosophy  which  looked 
down  upon  such  things  with  a  certain  disdain,  could  not 
restrain  a  sentimental  interest  in  the  pretended  communication 
from  her  lost  boys,  and  permitted  experiment  to  be  made  in 
his  family.  This  was  done  with  much  zest.  On  the  evening 
of  which  I  speak  it  was  resolved  to  have  a  seance.  One  of 
the  daughters,  an  uncommonly  beautiful,  intelligent,  and  high- 
spirited  girl  of  about  fifteen,  had  shown  remarkable  qualities  as  a 
‘  writing  medium-.’  When  the  circle  was  formed  around  the  table, 
hands  touching,  a  shiver  seemed  to  pass  over  her,  her  fingers  began 
to  twitch,  she  grasped  a  pencil  held  out  to  her,  and,  as  if  obeying 
an  irresistible  impulse,  she  wrote  in  a  jerking  way  upon  a  piece  of 
paper  placed  befc^re  her  the  ‘  messages  ’  given  her  by  the  ‘  spirits  ’ 
who  were  present.  So  it  happened  that  evening.  The  names  of 
various  deceased  persons  known  to  the  family  were  announced,  but 
they  had  nothing  to  say  e-xcept  that  they  ‘  lived  in  a  higher  sphere,’ 
and  were  ‘  happy,’  were  ‘  often  with  us,’  and  ‘  wished  us  all  to  be 
happy,’  etc. 

“  Finally  I  was  asked  by  one  of  the  family  i.f  I  could  not  take 
part  in  the  proceeding  by  calling  for  some  spirit  in  whom  I  took 
an  interest.  I  consented  and  called  for  Schiller.  For  a  minute 
or  two  the  hand  of  the  girl  remained  quiiet;  then  she  wrote  that 
the  spirit  o.f  Schiller  had  come  and  asked  wiiat  I  wished  of  him. 
I  answered  that  I  wished  him  by  way  of  identification,  to  quote 
a  verse  or  two  from  one  of  his  works.  Then  the  girl  wrote  in 
German  the  following: 

Von  Lichtern  hell.  Wer  sind  die  frohlichen? 

Ich  hore  rauschende  music,  das  Schloss  ist 

“We  were  all  struck  with  astonishment;  the  sound  of  the  lan¬ 
guage  was  much  like  Schiller’s  works  but  none  of  us  remembered 
for  a  moment  in  which  of  Schiller’s  works  the  lines  might  be  found. 
At  last  it  occurred  to  me  that  they  might  be  in  the  last  act  of  ‘  Wal¬ 
lenstein's  Tod.’  The  volume  was  brought  out  and  true  enough 
there  they  were.  I  asked  myself,  ‘  Can  it  be  that  the  girl,  who, 
although  very  intelligent,  has  never  been  given  to  much  reading, 


130  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

should  have  read  so  serious  a  work  as  ‘  Wallenstein’s  Death  ’ ;  and, 
if  she  has,  that  those  verses,  which  have  meaning  only  in  connection 
with  what  precedes  and  follows  them,  should  have  stuck  in  her 
memory?  I  asked  her,  when  the  seance  was  over,  what  she  knew 
about  the  Wallenstein  tragedy,  and  she,  an  entirely  truthful  child,  an¬ 
swered  that  she  had  never  read  a  line  of  it. 

“  But  something  still  stranger  was  in  store  for  me.  Schiller’s 
pirit  would  say  no  more,  and  I  called  for  the  spirit  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Aftef  several  minutes  had  elapsed,  the  girl  wrote  that 
Abraham  Lincoln’s  spirit  was  present.  I  asked  whether  he  knew 
to  what  purpose  President  Johnson  had  summoned  me  to  Wash¬ 
ington.  The  answer  came :  ‘  He  wants  you  to  make  an  important 
journey  for  him.’  I  asked  where  that  journey  would  take  me. 
Answer :  ‘  He  will  tell  you  to-morrow.’  I  asked  further  whether 

I  should  undertake  that  journey.  Answer:  ‘Yes,  do  not  fail.’ 
(I  may  add,  by  the  way,  that  at  the  time  I  had  not  the  slightest 
anticipation  as  to  what  President  Johnson’s  intention  with  regard 
to  me  was;  the  most  pilausible  supposition  I  entertained  was  that 
he  wished  to  discuss  with  me  the  points  urged  in  my  letter.) 

“  Having  disposed  of  this  matter  I  asked  whether  the  spirit  of 
Lincoln  had  anything  more  to  say  to  me.  Thp  answer  came : 
‘  Yes,  you  will  be  senator  of  the  United  States.’  This  struck  me 
as  so  fanciful  that  I  could  hardly  suppress  a  laugh;  but  I 
asked  further:  ‘  From  what  state?  ’  Answer:  ‘  From  Missouri.’ 
This  was  more  provokingly  mysterious  still ;  but  there  the  conversa¬ 
tion  ceased.  Hardly  anything  could  have  been  more  improbable  at 
that  time  than  that  I  should  be  a  senator  of  the  United  States  from 
Missouri.  My  domicile  was  in  Wisconsin,  and  I  was  thinking  of 
returning  there.  I  had  never  thought  of  removing  from  Wisconsin 
to  Missouri,  and  there  was  not  the  slightest  prospect  of  my  ever 
doing  so.  But  —  to  forestall  my  narrative  —  two  years  later  I  was 
surprised  by  an  entirely  unsought  and  unexpected  business  proposi¬ 
tion  which  took  me  to  St.  Louis,  and  in  January,  1869,  the  legis¬ 
lature  of  Missouri  elected  me  a  senator  of  the  United  States.  I 
then  remembered  the  prophecy  made  to  me  at  the  spirit  seance  in 
the  house  of  my  friend  Tiedemann  in  Philadelphia  which,  during 
the  intervening  years,  I  had  never  thought  of.  I  should  hardly 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  131 

have  trusted  my  memory  with  regard  to  it,  had  it  not  been  verified 
by  friends  who  witnessed  the  occurrence.” 

Inquiring  on  my  own  part  of  a  friend  in  Philadelphia,  a  physician, 
I  ascertained  that  he  knew  this  Dr.  Tiedemann,  and,  from  another 
who  knew  him  well,  I  found  out  that  he  was  a  man  of  intelligence 
and  that  the  phenomena  were  entirely  private  and  had  no  connec¬ 
tion  with  professional  mediumship,  a  fact  apparent  in  the  account 
of  Mr,  Schurz. 

The  following  incident,  published  in  the  “  Journal  ”  of  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  Volume  VII,  p.  129,  can  be 
found  in  the  life  of  Laura  Bridgman,  the  blind,  deaf  and  dumb 
girl  of  especial  interest  for  her  intelligence  as  manifested  through 
the  tactual  sense  alone. 

“  Miss  -Paddock  and  Miss  Wight  [two  teachers  in  the  ‘  Perkins 
Institute,’  each  of  whom  had  Laura  as  a  special  pupil]  were  greatly 
attached  to  each  other,  and  spent  much  of  their  leisure  time  to¬ 
gether.  They  often  noticed,  as  they  sat  talking  of  an  afternoon, 
with  Laura  near  by  knitting  at  her  purses  or  pretty  lace  edging, 
that  she  would  suddenly  lay  down  her  work  and  begin  talking  [with 
her  fingers]  of  the  person  or  topic  they  had  been  discussing.  The 
two  young  women  were  so  much  impressed  by  the  frequency  with 
which  Laura  took  up  the  subject  of  their  conversation  when  no 
possible  clue  of  it  had  been  given  to  her  by  word  or  act,  that  both 
believed  the  girl  often  knew  what  they  were  talking  about,  and  the 
girls  often  said  to  each  other,  what  they  would  have  been  abashed 
to  say  to  older  and  wiser  people,  that  Laura  always  knew  what 
they  were  thinking  of,  if  their  thoughts  were  strongly  concentrated 
upon  an  idea  or  a  person.” 

There  was  an  excellent  opportunity  here  to  investigate  either 
hyperaesthesia  of  touch  or  telepathy,  but  no  scientific  spirit  existed 
and  a  transcendent  opportunity  was  lost. 

Horace  Bushnell  in  1858  published  a  book  called  “  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural,”  in  which  he  mentions  a  number  of  incidents  that 
show  he  anticipated  psychic  research.  He  was  a  reforming  theo¬ 
logian,  founder  of  the  “  moral  theory  ”  of  the  atonement,  and 
perhaps  the  forerunner  of  all  progressive  theology  in  this  country. 
Some  of  the  incidents  which  he  narrates  would  not  stand  the  test 


132  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

of  science,  but  one  of  them  so  accords  with  what  has  been  proved 
by  later  investigation  that  it  deserves  quotation.  He  reports  from 
an  apparently  reliable  source  the  fact  of  an  interesting  coincidental 
dream,  which  was  told  by  him  by  the  dreamer.  Captain  Yonnt. 

“  About  six  or  seven  years  previous,  in  a  mid-winter's  night,  he 
had  a  dream  in  which  he  saw  what  appeared  to  be  a  company  of 
emigrants,  arrested  by  the  snows  of  the  mountains,  and  perishing 
rapidly  by  cold  and  hunger.  He  noted  the  very  cast  of  the  scenery, 
marked  by  a  huge  perpendicular  front  of  white  rock  cliff;  he  saw 
the  men  cutting  off  what  appeared  to  be  tree  tops,  rising  out  of 
deep  gulfs  of  snow :  he  distinguished  the  very  features  of  the  per¬ 
sons  and  the  look  of  their  particular  distress.  He  woke,  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  distinctness  and  apparent  reality  of  his  dream. 
At  length  he  fell  asleep  and  dreamed  exactly  the  same  dream  again. 
In  the  morning  he  could  not  expel  it  from  his  mind.  Falling  in 
shortly  with  an  old  hunter  comrade  he  told  him  the  story  and  was 
only  the  more  deeply  impressed  by  his  recognizing,  without  hesi¬ 
tation,  the  scenery  of  the  dream.  This  comrade  came  over  the 
Sierra  by  the  Carson  Valley  Pass,  and  declared  that  a  spot  in  the 
pass  answered  exactly  to  his  description.  By  this  the  unsophisti¬ 
cated  patriarch  was  decided.  He  immediately  collected  a  company 
of  men,  mules  and  blankets,  and  all  necessary  provisions.  The 
neighbors  were  laughing  in  the  meantime  at  his  credulity.  ‘  No 
matter,’  said  he,  ‘  I  am  able  to  do  this,  and  I  will,  for  I  verily  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  fact  is  according  to  my  dream.’  The  men  were  sent 
into  the  mountains,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  distant,  directly 
to  the  Carson  Valley  Pass.  And  there  they  found  the  company  in 
exactly  the  condition  of  the  dream,  and  brought  in  the  remnant 
alive. 

“A  gentleman  present  said,  ‘You  need  have  no  doubt  of  this; 
for  we  in  California  all  know  the  facts,  and  the  names  of  the  fam¬ 
ilies  brought  in,  who  now  look  upon  our  venerable  friend  as  a  kind 
of  savior.’  These  names  he  gave  and  the  place  where  they  reside, 
and  I  found  afterwards  that  the  California  people  were  ready  ev¬ 
erywhere  to  second  his  testimony.” 

Psychic  researchers  are  familiar  enough  with  coincidental  dreams 
and  would  have  no  difficulty  now  in  accepting  this  one. 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  133 

Louisa  M.  Alcott  tells  a  story,  corroborated  by  the  physician,  of 
an  experience  relating  to  the  death  of  her  sister. 

“  A  few  moments  after  the  last  breath  came,  as  mother  and  I 
sat  watching  the  shadow  fall  on  the  dear  little  face,  I  saw  a  light 
mist  rising  from  the  body,  and  float  up  and  vanish  in  the  air. 
Mother’s  eyes  followed  mine,  and  when  I  said,  ‘  What  did  you  see  ?  ’ 
she  described  the  same  light  mist.  Dr.  G.  said  it  was  life  departing 
visibly.” 

The  character  of  the  experience  as  shared,  removes  it  from  easy 
explanation  as  an  ordinary  hallucination;  and  the  character  of  the 
informant  makes  it  the  more  impressive. 

Mark  Twain  had  an  experience  which  he  called  “  mental  teleg¬ 
raphy”;  he  offered  it  to  the  publisher  of  a  well-known  magazine, 
but  it  was  rejected  as  one  of  his  jokes.  He  kept  it  some  years; 
and,  after  psychic  research  had  become  respectable  and  coincidences 
of  the  kind  had  become  credible,  the  magazine  published  it.  He 
also  had  a  premonitory  dream,  which  his  biographer,  Mr.  Albert 
Bigelow  Paine,  records.  Mark  Twain  (Samuel  Clemens)  was 
a  steersman  at  the  time  on  one  of  the  Mississippi  steamers. 

“  One  night,  when  the  Pennsylvania  lay  in  St.  Louis,  he  slept 
at  his  sister’s  house  and  had  this  vivid  dream : 

“  ‘  He  saw  Henry  [his  brother]  a  corpse,  lying  in  a  metallic  burial 
case  in  the  sitting  room,  supported  on  two  chairs.  On  his  breast 
lay  a  bouquet  of  flowers,  white,  with  a  single  crimson  bloom  in 
the  center.’ 

“  When  he  awoke,  it  was  morning,  but  the  dream  was  so  vivid 
that  he  believed  it  real.  Perhaps  something  of  the  old  hypnotic 
condition  was  upon  him,  but  he  rose  and  dressed,  thinking  he  would 
go  in  and  look  at  his  dead  brother.  Instead  he  went  out  on  the 
street  in  the  early  morning  and  had  walked  to  the  middle  of  the 
block  before  it  suddenly  flashed  upon  him  that  it  was  only  a  dream. 
He  bounded  back,  rushed  to  the  sitting  room  and  felt  a  great 
trembling  revulsion  of  joy  when  he  found  it  really  empty.  He  told 
Pamela  [his  sister]  the  dream,  then  put  it  out  of  his  mind  as  quickly 
as  he  could.  The  Pennsylvania  sailed  from  St.  Louis  as  usual  and 
made  a  safe  trip  to  New  Orleans.  [Henry  and  Samuel  both  being 
employees  on  the  steamer.] 


134  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  It  is  doubtful  if  he  remembered  his  recent  disturbing  dream, 
though  some  foreboding  would  seem  to  have  hung  over  him  the 
night  before  the  Pennsylvania  sailed  on  the  return  trip.  .  .  .  On 
this  particular  night  the  elder,  Samuel,  spoke  of  disaster  on  the 
river.  Finally  he  said  : 

“  ‘  In  case  of  accident,  whatever  you  do,  don’t  lose  your  head 
—  the  passengers  will  do  that.  Rush  for  the  hurricane  deck  and 
to  the  life  boat,  and  obey  the  mate’s  orders.  When  the  boat  is 
launched,  help  the  women  and  children  into  it.  Don’t  get  in 
yourself.  The  river  is  only  a  mile  wide.  You  can  swim  ashore 
easily  enough.’ 

“  It  was  good  manly  advice,  but  it  yielded  a  long  harvest  of 
sorrow.  Henry  was  burned  on  the  return  trip  by  the  escaping 
steam  from  the  steamer’s  engines,  four  of  which  blew  up,  causing 
an  immense  loss  of  life  by  drowning  and  scalding.  Henry,  clear 
of  danger  and  able  to  swim  ashore,  returned  to  help  others  and 
was  scalded  by  breathing  steam  and  died  after  several  days. 

“  He,  Samuel,  saw  the  body  down  to  the  dead  room,  then  the 
long  strain  of  grief,  the  days  and  nights  without  sleep,  the  ghastly 
realization  of  the  end,  overcame  him.  ...  It  was  many  hours  be¬ 
fore  he  awoke;  when  he  did  ...  he  dressed  and  went  to  where 
Henry  lay.  The  coffins  provided  for  the  dead  were  of  unpainted 
wood,  but  the  youth  and  striking  face  of  Henry  Clemens  had 
aroused  a  special  interest.  The  ladies  of  Memphis  had  made  up  a 
fund  of  sixty  dollars  and  bought  him  a  metallic  case.  Samuel, 
entering,  saw  his  brother  lying  exactly  as  he  had  seen  him  in  his 
dream,  lacking  only  the  bouquet  of  white  flowers  with  its  crimson 
center  —  a  detail  made  complete  while  he  stood  there,  for  at  the 
moment  an  elderly  lady  came  in  with  a  large  white  bouquet,  and  in 
the  center  of  it  was  a  single  red  rose.” 

This  is  a  graphic  incident;  but  the  details  of  the  premonition 
must  excite  skepticism,  which  would  be  supported  by  the  risk  of 
paramnesia,  an  illusion  of  memory,  especially  since  his  biographer 
speaks  of  Mark  Twain’s  liability  to  strange  mistakes  of  memory, 
probably  connected  with  the  intensity  of  his  imagination.  But 
such  as  it  is,  he  told  his  biographer  the  story  as  a  fact. 

Professor  James  obtained  through  Frank  R.  Stockton  a  narra- 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  135 

tive  of  some  experiences  in  his  sister’s  house  which,  though  not  his 
own,  he  could  vouch  for.  His  sister  was  the  subject  of  them. 
They  consisted  of  apparent  footsteps  in  the  house,  which,  though, 
not  assuredly  extraordinary,  were  inexplicable,  and  were  made  the 
subject  of  critical  examination. 

James  Otis,  the  celebrated  lawyer,  had  often  expressed  the  wish 
that  he  should  meet  his  death  by  lightning.  While  staying  in  the 
country,  he  was  standing  in  the  door  when  he  was  killed  by  a  sud¬ 
den  stroke  of  lightning.  The  coincidence  is  hardly  evidence  of 
a  supernormal  premonition,  but  it  is  reported  as  a  fact. 

An  experience  of  Mr.  Chauncey  Depew,  former  United  States 
senator  from  the  State  of  New  York,  has  at  least  the  suggestion  of 
premonition.  The  following  is  the  newspaper  account  of  the  ex¬ 
perience,  which  Mr.  Depew  confirmed  by  a  personal  letter  to  Pro¬ 
fessor  Newbold,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he 
states  that  “  the  story  is  substantially  true  as  written.”  It  occurred 
on  the  eve  of  the  political  convention  which  nominated  Theodore 
Roosevelt  for  the  governorship  of  New  York  State.  This  was  in 
October,  1898. 

“  On  Saturday  afternoon,  before  the  Republican  Convention  was 
to  meet,  Mr.  Depew  went  to  the  Country  Club,  at  Ardsley-on-the- 
Hudson,  which  was  his  temporary  home,  and  after  luncheon  he 
went  out  upon  the  piazza,  from  which  a  beautiful  vista  across  the 
Hudson  can  be  obtained. 

“  He  sat  there,  lazily  intent  upon  the  scenery,  which  was  espe¬ 
cially  agreeable  to  a  man  who  had  been  for  a  week  in  the  thick 
of  the  most  exciting  business  undertakings.  By  and  by  the  vista 
seemed  to  pass  away.  He  saw  as  vividly  as  though  the  scene  were 
real  the  convention  hall  in  Saratoga.  He  saw  the  delegates  stroll 
in.  He  looked  at  the  presiding  officer,  whose  name  he  did  not 
know,  as  he  called  the  convention  to  order. 

“  He  heard  the  temporary  chairman’s  speech,  he  saw  the  various 
details  of  preliminary  organization,  and  all  the  work  in  the  con¬ 
vention  was  as  vivid  as  though  he  were  a  part  of  it  at  the  moment. 
Then  at  last  he  saw  Mr.  Quigg  make  a  motion  for  the  nomination 
of  candidates  and  heard  the  brief  comment  with  which  Mr.  Quigg 
accompanied  that  motion. 


136  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  He  did  not,  it  is  true,  know  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  Mr.  Quigg 
was  to  make  that  motion ;  nevertheless  he  saw  him  do  it.  He  said 
to  himself,  ‘  Your  time  is  come  for  your  speech  placing  Roosevelt 
in  nomination.’  He  saw  himself  rise,  address  the  chair,  and  heard 
himself  deliver  the  speech  and  felt  the  glow  of  satisfaction  at  its 
reception,  which  is  the  highest  reward  of  eloquence. 

“  After  that,  the  convention  hall,  the  voices  of  the  orators,  the 
faces  of  the  delegates  faded  away  as  in  a  dream,  and  Mr.  Depew 
again  saw  the  vista  of  the  Hudson  and  the  distant  mountains  across 
the  stream.  He  got  up,  went  to  his  room  and  wrote  out  with 
his  own  hand  the  speech,  exactly  as  he  afterward  in  fact  delivered 
it. 

The  address  which  the  delegates  heard  was  the  address  which 
by  that  singular  preoccnpancy  of  the  mind,  Mr.  Depew  composed 
on  that  dreamy  Saturday  afternoon.  Afterward,  at  the  conven¬ 
tion,  he  was  amazed  to  discover  that  the  picture  which  he  saw  with 
his  mind’s  eye  was  perfectly  reproduced  to  his  physical  eye  and 
ear  in  the  convention,  even  to  the  words  of  the  chairman  and  the 
manner  and  motion  of  Mr.  Quigg.” 

We  should  like  to  have  had  the  details  of  the  “  vision  ”  before 
it  was  fulfilled  at  Saratoga.  Though  we  cannot  obtain  these,  the 
experience  has  the  character  of  Mr.  Depew  to  give  it  interest. 

Ernest  Thompson-Seton,  the  traveler,  tells  some  experiences  in 
connection  with  prediction  and  clairvoyance  among  the  Indians. 
There  was  an  especially  reliable  old  guide  whom  he  asked  to  ac¬ 
company  him  on  an  important  trip.  The  old  Indian  went,  taking 
with  him  “  a  new  shirt  and  a  pair  of  pants  ” —  this  was  the  outfit 
of  a  corpse;  and  the  Indian  explained  that  he  was  to  die,  “when 
the  sun  rose  at  that  island  ”  (a  week  ahead),  before  the  officer  in 
charge  came  back.  A  week  after  they  had  started  he  put  on  the 
new  clothes  and  said,  “  To-day  I  die  when  the  sun  is  over  that 
island.”  The  author  adds :  “  He  went  out  looking  at  the  sun 

from  time  to  time,  placidly  smoking.  When  the  sun  got  to  the 
right  place  he  came  in,  lay  down  by  the  fire  and  in  a  few  minutes 
was  dead.” 

Auto-suggestion  is  probable  in  this  case;  but  we  do  not  know 
what  auto-suggestion  is!  It  may  be  as  supernormal  as  any  mate- 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  137 

rialization  would  be.  The  main  point  is,  that  the  incident  is  vouched 
for  by  a  reliable  and  disinterested  reporter. 

Dwight  L.  Moody,  the  evangelist,  had  an  experience  which  ap¬ 
parently  forecast  some  danger  to  him,  a  few  days  before  the  arrest 
of  a  lunatic,  who  felt  himself  commissioned  to  assassinate  Mr. 
Moody  and  had  tried  for  days  to  get  an  opportunity  to  stab  him. 
The  incident  is  not  striking,  and  would  have  no  standing  alone  in 
a  scientific  court;  but  it  is  one  of  a  large  number  with  good  cre¬ 
dentials. 

Sir  Henry  Stanley,  the  African  explorer,  narrates  a  personal  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  coincidental  type.  While  a  private  in  the  Confed¬ 
erate  Army,  he  was  captured  at  Shiloh  and  sent  to  Camp  Douglas 
near  Chicago.  His  biographer  writes  the  account  as  he  told  it ; 

"On  the  next  day  (April  16,  1862),  after  the  morning  duties 
had  been  performed,  the  rations  divided,  the  cooks  had  departed 
contented,  and  the  c^uarters  had  been  swept,  I  proceeded  to  my  nest 
and  reclined  alongside  of  my  friend  Wilkes  in  a  posture  that  gave 
me  command  of  one  half  of  the  building.  I  made  some  remarks  to 
him  upon  the  card-playing  groups  opposite,  when  suddenly  I  felt  a 
gentle  stroke  on  the  back  of  my  neck,  and  in  an  instant  I  was  un¬ 
conscious.  The  next  moment  I  had  a  vivid  view  of  the  village  of 
Tremeirchion  and  the  glassy  slopes  of  the  hills  of  Hirradog,  and 
I  seemed  to  be  hovering  over  the  rook  woods  of  Brynbella.  I  glided 
to  the  bed  chamber  of  my  Aunt  Mary.  My  aunt  was  in  bed  and 
seemed  sick  unto  death.  I  took  a  position  by  the  side  of  the  bed, 
and  saw  myself,  with  head  bent  down,  listening  to  her  parting 
words,  which  sounded  regretful,  as  though  conscience  smote  her 
for  not  having  been  so  kind  as  she  might  have  been,  or  had  wished 
to  be.  I  heard  the  boy  say,  ‘  I  believe  you.  Aunt.  It  is  neither 
your  fault  nor  mine.  You  were  good  and  kind  to  me,  and  I  knew 
you  wished  to  be  kinder;  but  things  were  so  ordered  that  you  had 
to  be  what  you  were.  I  also  dearly  wished  to  love  you,  but  I  was 
afraid  to  speak  of  it,  lest  you  would  check  me  or  say  something 
that  would  offend  me.  I  feel  our  parting  was  in  this  spirit.  There 
is  no  need  of  regrets.  You  have  done  your  duty  to  me,  and  you 
had  children  of  your  own,  who  required  all  your  care.  What  has 
happened  to  me  since,  was  decreed  should  happen.  Farewell.’ 


138  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  I  put  forth  my  hand  and  felt  the  clasp  of  the  long  thin  hands 
of  the  sore-sick  woman.  I  heard  a  murmur  of  farewell,  and  im¬ 
mediately  I  woke. 

“  It  appeared  to  me  that  I  had  but  closed  my  eyes.  I  was  still 
in  the  same  reclining  attitude,  the  groups  opposite  me  were  still 
engaged  in  their  card  games,  Wilkes  was  in  the  same  position. 
Nothing  had  changed.  I  asked,  ‘  What  has  happened?  ’ 

“  ‘  What  could  happen  ?  ’  said  he.  ‘  What  makes  you  ask  ?  It 
is  but  a  moment  ago  you  were  speaking  to  me.’ 

“  ‘  Oh,  I  thought  I  had  been  asleep  a  long  time.’ 

“  On  the  next  day,  the  17th  of  April,  1862,  my  Aunt  Mary 
died  at  Fynnon  Beuno  [in  Wales] !  ” 

General  John  C.  Fremont,  who  was  the  first  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  newly  formed  Republican  party,  and  who  was 
also  a  United  States  senator,  and  an  explorer  of  some  ability,  once 
came  near  starving  on  the  western  plains.  In  his  biography  by 
his  daughter,  the  following  incident  is  told.  It  is  abbreviated 
here. 

After  the  escape  from  danger,  he  wrote  in  his  diary  an  account 
of  the  facts  and  felt  relief  at  the  thought  that  his  wife  would  be 
glad  to  know  of  his  safety.  In  Washington,  D.  C.,  his  wife  had 
suddenly  been  seized  with  foreboding  and  despondency  about  him 
and  could  not  sleep,  eat,  nor  go  into  company  on  account  of  her 
fears.  She  had  the  feeling  that  he  was  starving.  This  weight  of 
fear,  however,  was  lifted  as  suddenly  as  it  had  come.  Her  sister 
Susie  and  others  had  returned  from  a  wedding  and  they  sat  down  by 
the  fire.  Mrs.  Fremont  went  out  to  get  some  wood;  and,  as  she 
knelt  to  pick  up  a  stick,  she  felt  an  invisible  hand  on  her  shoulder  and 
heard  the  laughing  voice  of  her  husband  whisper  her  name, 
“  Jessie.”  There  was  no  sound.  When  she  came  back  to  the 
others  her  sister  Susie  uttered  a  scream  and  fell  on  the  rug.  Her 
cousin  asked  Mrs.  Fremont  what  she  had  seen,  and  she  explained 
that  she  had  seen  nothing  but  had  heard  her  husband  tell  her  to 
keep  still  until  he  could  scare  Susie.  Peace  of  mind  came  to  the 
wife  instantly.  When  General  Fremont  returned  home  it  was 
found  that  the  wife’s  fears  coincided  with  the  time  he  was  starving 
in  the  desert  and  his  diary  showed  that  at  the  very  time  he  was 


EXPERIENCES  OF  WELL-KNOWN  PERSONS  139 

writing  the  journal  note  of  his  escape  and  happiness  his  wife  had 
her  experience  and  lost  her  anxiety. 

Henry  Wikoff,  a  lawyer,  who  traveled  much  and  who  at  one 
time  was  employed  by  Lord  Palmerston  as  a  secret  agent,  tells  a 
detailed  story  of  the  apparition  of  his  deceased  cousin,  which  lin¬ 
gered  for  two  hours  in  spite  of  repeated  efforts  during  that  time 
to  dispel  the  “  hallucination,”  as  he  regarded  it.  He  does  not 
remark  any  coincidence  in  it,  naturally  enough,  since  he  thought  it 
an  unaccountable  delusion. 

Dean  Hole,  of  Rochester,  England,  tells  in  his  memoirs  some 
personal  experiences  and  some  incidents  which  came  to  him  from 
others.  He  wanted  information  which  only  one  man  could  give 
him,  and  that  man  was  dead.  Dean  Hole,  however,  saw  him  in 
a  vision,  and  his  answer  to  Dean  Hole’s  question  told  the  latter 
all  he  wanted  to  know.  He  told  the  incident  to  his  solicitor  and 
the  latter  mentioned  a  similar  experience  of  his  own :  a  dream  in 
which  his  father  appeared  to  him  and  conveyed  desired  informa¬ 
tion. 

These  incidents,  taken  alone,  have  no  evidential  values,  but  sim¬ 
ilar  experiences  are  well  authenticated  and  can  be  shown  to  have 
evidential  importance.  We  have  quoted  the  foregoing  instances 
not  for  their  scientific  value,  but  simply  for  the  unimpeachable 
character  of  the  witnesses.  We  require  only  better  credentials  in 
the  way  of  record  at  the  time  and  more  striking  incidents  of  detail 
to  arouse  scientific  interest. 


CHAPTER  XII 
SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


The  only  spontaneous  incidents  which  can  serve  as  evidence 
of  survival  are  apparitions.  And  among  these  the  pen¬ 
chant  for  telepathy  as  an  explanation  of  so  many  types  of 
coincidences  requires  us  to  select  only  phantasms  of  the  dead.  As 
we  have  already  seen,  phantasms  of  the  living  and  the  dying  cannot 
be  quoted  as  evidence,  at  least  as  evidence  free  from  the  suspicion  of 
telepathy.  We  are  therefore  obliged  to  select  apparitions  which 
cannot  so  easily  be  referred  to  that  process.  Some  of  them  at  least, 
if  not  all  of  them,  may  be  exposed  to  simpler  objections  than  is  telep¬ 
athy;  but  I  am  sure  that,  if  telepath)'^  has  supplanted  chance  coinci¬ 
dence  and  subjective  casual  hallucination  as  an  explanation  for  phan¬ 
tasms  of  the  living  and  of  the  dying,  these  latter  explanations  will  not 
any  more  easily  apply  to  certain  phantasms  of  the  dead.  We  shall 
suppose  here  that  chance  coincidences  and  subjective  hallucinations 
have  been  excluded  from  the  collection  with  sufficient  care ;  the  re¬ 
maining  experiences  are  impressive  collectively,  and,  so  far  as 
they  go,  are  suggestively  evidential.  We  resort  to  experiment  for 
more  conclusive  testimony. 

In  taking  up  apparitions,  however,  as  preliminary  evidence  for 
survival,  I  shall  first  select  from  a  special  type  that  are  perhaps 
more  impressive  than  the  others  and  that  have  more  or  less  cor¬ 
roborative  support.  I  refer  to  visions  of  the  dying.  They  are  pe¬ 
culiarly  free  from  the  ordinary  objections  to  apparitions,  though 
they  may  have  to  contend  with  other  difficulties  in  the  way  of  proof. 
They  have  the  advantage  of  being  identified  by  the  dying  person 
at  the  outset,  and  are  not  exposed  to  the  suspicion  of  being  ordi¬ 
nary  illusions  caused  by  some  casual  stimulus.  Chance  coincidence 
may  account  for  some  of  them,  but  hallucination  and  illusion  due 
to  sensory  stimuli  are  less  applicable  to  them  than  to  many  other 

140 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


141 

types  of  apparition.  Besides,  they  are  numerous  enough  to  de¬ 
serve  special  consideration. 

The  first  examples  of  visions  of  the  dying  are  taken  from  the 
first  number  of  the  “  Journal  ”  of  the  American  Society. 

The  first  of  this  group  was  dictated  to  me  by  the  two  persons  who 
knew  the  facts  and  was  taken  down  verbatim.  Both  are  intelligent 
and  trustworthy  witnesses,  no  more  liable  to  errors  in  such  matters 
than  alt  of  us.  It  involved  circumstances  which  give  peculiar  value 
to  the  incident,  as  the  story  itself  will  show.  I  quote  the  narrative 
as  I  took  it  down. 

“  Four  or  five  weeks  before  my  son’s  death  Mrs.  S -  was  with  me 

—  she  was  my  friend  and  a  psychic  —  and  a  message  was  given  me  that 
little  Bright  Eyes  (control)  would  be  with  my  son  who  was  then  ill  with 
cancer.  The  night  before  his  death  he  complained  that  there  was  a 
little  girl  about  his  bed  and  asked  who  it  was.  This  was  at  Muskoka,  160 

miles  north  of  Toronto.  He  had  not  known  what  Mrs.  S -  had  told 

me.  Just  before  his  death,  about  five  minutes,  he  roused,  called  his  nurse 
for  a  drink  of  water,  and  said  clearly:  ‘I  think  they  are  taking  me.’ 

Afterward  seeing  the  possible  significance  of  this  I  wrote  to  Miss  A - 

and  asked  her  to  see  Mrs.  S - and  try  to  find  why  the  word  ‘  they  ’  was 

used,  underscoring  it  in  the  letter,  as  I  always  supposed  the  boy’s  father 

would  be  with  him  at  death.  Miss  A -  went  to  see  Mrs.  S - ,  and 

did  not  mention  the  letter.  When  I  saw  Mrs.  S - more  than  a  week  later 

we  were  having  a  sitting  and  Guthrie,  my  son,  came  and  told  me  how  he 
died.  He  said  he  was  lying  on  the  bed  and  felt  he  was  being  lifted  out 
of  his  body  and  at  that  point  all  pain  left.  His  first  impulse  was  to  get 
back  into  his  body,  but  he  was  being  drawn  away.  He  was  taken  up  into 
a  cloud  and  he  seemed  to  be  a  part  of  it.  His  feeling  was  that  he  was 
being  taken  by  invisible  hands  into  rarified  air  that  was  so  delightful.  He 
spoke  of  his  freedom  from  pain  and  said  that  he  saw  his  father  beyond.” 

The  intimate  friendship  of  Mrs.  S -  with  Mrs.  G - ,  the 

mother  of  the  boy,  makes  it  possible  to  suppose  that  hints  or  sug¬ 
gestions  may  have  been  unconsciously  conveyed  to  the  boy  before 
his  death  or  that  something  was  said  at  the  experiment  which  might 
deprive  the  incidents  of  that  importance  which  they  superficially 
seem  to  have.  The  boy’s  experience  of  a  strange  girl  at  his  bed¬ 
side,  and  the  allusion  to  the  plural  of  the  pronoun  are  quite  possibly 
correct  accounts  of  the  facts.  A  record  of  the  later  sitting  would  be 
necessary  to  be  assured  that  the  allusion  to  the  father  was  not  in 
response  to  a  suggestion. 


142  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

I  quote  next  a  well  authenticated  instance  on  the  authority  of 
Dr.  Minot  J.  Savage.  He  records  it  in  his  “  Psychic  Facts  and 
Theories.”  He  also  told  me  personally  of  the  facts  and  gave  me 
the  names  and  addresses  of  the  persons  on  whose  authority  he  tells 
the  incidents.  I  am  not  permitted  to  mention  them;  but  the  story 
is  as  follows : 

“  In  a  neighboring  city  were  two  little  girls,  Jennie  and  Edith,  one 
about  eight  years  of  age,  and  the  other  but  a  little  older.  They  were 
schoolmates  and  intimate  friends.  In  June,  1889,  both  were  taken  ill  of 
diphtheria.  At  noon  on  Wednesday,  Jennie  died.  Then  the  parents  of 
Edith,  and  her  physician  as  well,  took  particular  pains  to  keep  from  her 
the  fact  that  her  little  playmate  was  gone.  They  feared  the  effect  of  the 
knowledge  on  her  own  condition.  To  prove  that  they  succeeded  and 
that  she  did  not  know,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  on  Saturday,  June  8,  at 
noon,  just  before  she  became  unconscious  of  all  that  was  passing  about 
her,  she  selected  two  of  her  photographs  to  be  sent  to  Jennie,  and  also  told 
her  attendants  to  bid  her  good-by. 

“  She  died  at  half-past  six  o’clock  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  June  8. 
She  had  roused  and  bidden  her  friends  good-by,  and  was  talking  of  dying, 
and  seemed  to  have  no  fear.  She  appeared  to  see  one  and  another  of  the 
friends  she  knew  were  dead.  So  far  it  was  like  the  common  cases.  But 
now  suddenly,  and  with  every  appearance  of  surprise,  she  turned  to  her 
father,  and  exclaimed,  ‘Why,  papa,  I  am  going  to  take  Jennie  with  me!’ 
Then  she  added,  ‘Why,  papa!  Wh)^,  papa!  You  did  not  tell  me  that 
Jennie  was  here !  ’  And  immediately  she  reached  out  her  arms  as  if  in 
welcome,  and  said,  ‘  O,  Jennie,  I ’m  so  glad  you  are  here.’  ” 

As  Dr.  Savage  remarks  in  connection  with  the  story,  it  is  not 
so  easy  to  account  for  this  incident  by  the  ordinary  theory  of 
hallucination.  We  have  to  suppose  a  casual  coincidence  at  the 
same  time,  and  while  we  should  have  to  suppose  this  for  any  isolated 
case  like  the  present,  the  multiplication  of  cases,  with  proper  cre¬ 
dentials,  would  suggest  some  other  explanation. 

I  shall  turn  next  to  two  instances  which  are  associated  with  the 
experiments  and  records  of  Mrs.  Piper.  Both  present  the  allega¬ 
tion  of  death-bed  apparitions,  and  give  statements  through  Mrs. 
Piper  purporting  to  be  communications  from  the  deceased,  show¬ 
ing  a  coincidence  with  what  was  otherwise  known  or  alleged  to 
have  taken  place  at  the  crisis  of  death.  The  records  in  these  cases 
are  unusually  good,  having  been  made  by  Dr.  Richard  Hodgson.  I 
quote  his  reports.  The  first  instance  is  the  experience  of  a  man 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


143 

who  gives  only  initials  for  his  name,  but  was  well  known  to  Dr. 
Hodgson.  It  occurred  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper, 

“About  the  end  of  March  of  last  year  (1888)  I  made  her  (Mrs.  Piper) 
a  visit  —  having  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  so,  since  early  in  February, 
about  once  a  fortnight.  She  told  me  that  the  death  of  a  near  relative 
of  mine  would  occur  in  about  six  weeks,  from  which  I  should  realize 
some  pecuniary  advantages.  I  naturally  thought  of  my  father,  who  was 
in  advanced  years,  and  whose  description  Mrs.  Piper  had  given  me  very 
accurately  some  week  or  two  previously.  She  had  not  spoken  of  him  as 
my  father,  but  merely  as  a  person  nearly  connected  with  me.  I  asked  her 
at  this  sitting  whether  this  person  was  the  one  who  would  die,  but  she  de¬ 
clined  to  state  anything  more  clearly  to  me.  My  wife,  to  whom  I  was 
then  engaged,  went  to  see  Mrs.  Piper  a  few  days  afterward,  and  she  told 
her  (my  wife)  that  my  father  would  die  in  a  few  weeks. 

About  the  middle  of  May  my  father  died  very  suddenly  in  London  from 
heart  failure,  when  he  was  recovering  from  a  very  slight  attack  of  bron¬ 
chitis,  and  the  very  day  that  his  doctor  had  pronounced  him  out  of  danger. 
Previous  to  this  Mrs.  Piper  (as  Dr.  Phinuit)  had  told  me  that  she  would 
endeavor  to  influence  my  father  about  certain  matters  connected  with  his 
will  before  he  died.  Two  days  after  I  received  the  cable  announcing  his 
death  my  wife  and  I  went  to  see  Mrs.  Piper,  and  she  (Phinuit)  spoke  of 
his  presence,  and  his  sudden  arrival  in  the  spirit  world,  and  said  that  he 
(Dr.  Phinuit)  had  endeavored  to  persuade  him  in  these  matters  while  my 
father  was  sick.  Dr.  Phinuit  told  me  the  state  of  the  will,  and  described 
the  principal  executor,  and  said  that  he  (the  executor)  would  make  a 
certain  disposition  in  my  favor,  subject  to  the  consent  of  the  other  two 
executors  when  I  got  to  London,  England.  Three  weeks  afterward  I  ar¬ 
rived  in  London ;  found  the  principal  executor  to  be  the  man  Dr.  Phinuit 
had  described.  The  will  went  materially  as  he  (Dr.  Phinuit)  had  stated. 
The  disposition  was  made  in  my  favor,  and  my  sister,  who  was  chiefly 
at  my  father’s  bedside  the  last  three  days  of  his  life,  told  me  he  had  repeat¬ 
edly  complained  of  the  presence  of  an  old  man  at  the  foot  of  his  bed,  who 
annoyed  him  by  discussing  his  private  affairs.” 

The  reader  will  remark  that  the  incident  is  associated  with  a 
prediction,  but  that  is  not  the  subject  under  observation  at  present. 
The  chief  point  of  interest  is,  that  the  prediction  refers  to  a  will 
affecting  private  business  matters,  that  the  sister  reported  a  num¬ 
ber  of  visions  or  apparitions  at  the  man’s  death-bed,  and  that  after 
his  death,  apparently  not  known  to  Mrs.  Piper,  the  statement  was 
made  by  Phinuit  that  he  had  influenced  or  tried  to  persuade  the  man 
in  reference  to  these  matters.  The  coincidence  is  unmistakable  and 
the  cause  is  suggested  by  the  very  nature  of  the  phenomena  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  occurred.  But  we  need  a  large  mass 


144  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

of  such  incidents  to  give  the  hypothesis  something  like  scientific 
proof. 

The  next  case  is  a  most  important  one.  It  is  connected  with  an 
experiment  by  Dr.  Hodgson  with  Mrs.  Piper,  and  came  as  an  ac¬ 
cidental  feature  of  the  sitting.  The  account  is  associated  in  his 
report  with  incidents  quoted  by  him  in  explanation  of  the  diffi¬ 
culty  and  confusion  accompanying  real  or  alleged  communications 
from  the  dead.  It  will  be  useful  to  quote  the  report  on  that  point 
before  narrating  the  incident  itself,  as  the  circumstances  associated 
with  the  facts  are  important  to  the  understanding  of  the  case,  while 
they  also  suggest  a  view  of  the  phenomena  which  may  explain  the 
rarity  of  them. 

“That  persons  ‘just  deceased,’”  says  Dr.  Hodgson,  “should  be  ex¬ 
tremely  confused  and  unable  to  communicate  directly,  or  even  at  all,  seems 
perfectly  natural  after  the  shock  and  wrench  of  death.  Thus  in  the  case 
of  Hart,  he  was  unable  to  write  the  second  day  after  death.  In  an¬ 
other  case  a  friend  of  mine,  whom  I  may  call  D.,  wrote,  with  what  appeared 
to  be  much  difficulty,  his  name  and  the  words,  ‘  I  am  all  right  now. 
Adieu,’  within  two  or  three  days  of  his  death.  In  another  case,  F.,  a 
near  relative  of  Madame  Elisa,  was  unable  to  write  on  the  morning  after 
his  death.  On  the  second  day  after,  when  a  stranger  was  present  with  me 
for  a  sitting,  he  wrote  two  or  three  sentences,  saying,  ‘  I  am  too  weak 
to  articulate  clearly,’  and  not  many  days  later  he  wrote  fairly  well  and 
clearly,  and  dictated  to  Madame  Elisa  (deceased),  as  amanuensis,  an 
account  of  his  feelings  at  finding  himself  in  his  new  surroundings.” 

In  a  footnote  Dr.  Hodgson  adds  an  account  of  what  this  Madame 
Elisa  communicated  regarding  the  man.  I  quote  this  in  full.  Re¬ 
ferring  to  this  F.  and  Madame  Elisa,  he  says : 

“  The  notice  of  his  death  was  in  a  Boston  paper,  and  I  happened  to  see  it 
on  my  way  to  the  sitting.  The  first  writing  of  the  sitting  came  from 
Madame  Elisa,  without  my  expecting  it.  She  wrote  clearly  and  strongly, 
explaining  that  F.  was  there  with  her,  but  unable  to  speak  directly,  that 
she  wished  to  give  me  an  account  of  how  she  had  helped  F.  to  reach 
her.  She  said  that  she  had  been  present  at  his  death-bed,  and  had  spoken 
to  him,  and  she  repeated  what  she  had  said,  an  unusual  form  of  expres¬ 
sion,  and  indicated  that  he  had  heard  and  recognized  her.  This  wa.s  con¬ 
firmed  in  detail  in  the  only  way  possible  at  the  time,  by  a  very  intimate 
friend  of  Madame  Elisa  and  myself,  and  also  of  the  nearest  surviving 
relative  of  F.  I  showed  my  friend  the  account  of  the  sitting,  and  to  this 
friend  a  day  or  two  later,  the  relative,  who  was  present  at  the  death¬ 
bed.  stated  spontaneously  that  F.,  when  dying,  said  that  he  saw  Madame 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


H5 

Elisa,  who  was  speaking  to  him,  and  he  repeated  what  she  was  saying.  The 
expression  so  repeated,  which  the  relative  quoted  to  my  friend,  was  that 
which  I  had  received  from  Madame  Elisa  through  Mrs.  Piper’s  trance, 
when  the  death-bed  incident  was  of  course  entirely  unknown  to  me.” 

The  apparent  significance  of  such  a  coincidence  is  evident,  and 
its  value  is  much  enhanced  by  the  cross  reference  involved  in  the 
work  of  Dr.  Hodgson.  The  following  incidents  are  perhaps  less 
evidential,  but  may  be  trusted  as  actual  events. 

The  next  case  is  a  very  important  one,  because  the  percipient  did 
not  know  that  his  teacher  was  dead.  Unfortunately  the  mother 
took  an  unreasonable  position  in  regard  to  narrating  the  facts. 
The  state  of  mind  of  religious  people  on  such  a  matter  is  incom¬ 
prehensible,  except  on  the  ground  that  they  take  a  selfish  view  of 
the  question  of  survival  after  death.  This  detenuination  not  to 
help  others  in  such  matters  only  tends  to  confirm  the  skeptic’s  judg¬ 
ment  both  that  there  is  no  evidence  for  the  belief  and  that  the  be¬ 
lievers  in  it  have  only  a  selfish  interest  in  a  future  life.  Un¬ 
fortunately  this  is  too  often  true.  In  the  present  instance  we  have 
the  statement  of  another  witness  and  though  it  is  not  as  complete  as 
we  might  wish,  because  she  had  not  appreciated  the  value  of  the 
incident,  the  refusal  of  the  mother  to  testify  is  a  negative  con¬ 
firmation  of  the  factSu 


February  4,  1907. 

“  Dr.  James  H.  Hyslop, 

“  Dear  Doctor:  — 

“  I  am  on  the  track  of  a  very  strange  circumstance  that  happened  in 
the  family  of  a  cousin  of  mine  living  in  Greeley,  Colorado. 

“  It  seems  their  child  was  dying  and  a  very  short  time  before  death 
told  hds  mother  that  the  teacher  (public  school  teacher)  was  in  the  room. 
The  child’s  mind,  so  far  as  they  could  tell,  was  clear.  The  strange  part  is 
that  a  very  short  time  before,  perhaps  an  hour  or  so,  the  teacher  had  sud¬ 
denly  died.  Her  death  was  unlooked  for  and  the  child  knew  nothing 
of  it,  and  so  far  as  I  can  learn  none  of  those  with  the  child  knew  of 
teacher’s  death.  Would  such  a  circumstance  properly  vouched  for  be 
of  any  value?  I  find  it  very  hard  to  persuade  people  to  relate  or  tell  about 
such  things.  This  family  above  mentioned  are  worthy  people,  the  mother 
being  for  years  a  teacher  in  the  Greeley,  Colorado,  schools. 

“  Yours  truly, 

“  Dr.  H.  L.  Coleman.” 

I  wrote  to  Dr.  Coleman  asking  him  to  make  an  effort  to  secure 


146  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  lady’s  statement  of  the  facts,  for  obvious  reasons,  and  the  fol¬ 
lowing  is  his  reply  after  making  the  attempt ; 


“March  15,  1907. 

“  Dr.  James  H.  Hyslop. 

“  My  Dear  Sir :  — 

“  I  am  sorry  to  inform  you  that  I  have  resorted  to  every  means  to 
obtain  from  the  mother  of  the  child  a  full  account  erf  the  vision,  but  she 
absolutely  refuses  to  give  me  any  information.  She  belongs  to  the  class 
of  people  who  regard  such  things  as  Psychical  Research  as  unholy  and 
wrong,  though  in  other  matters  she  is  a  woman  of  education  and  standing 
in  society.  She  is  strictly  orthodox  (a  Methodist)  and  no  influence  my¬ 
self  or  any  of  my  friends  can  have  on  her  will  in  any  way  change  her 
views.  I  feel  sure  the  case  was  one  of  great  value.  A  cousin  who  talked 
to  her  about  the  matter  told  me  as  follows :  The  day  before  the  little  boy 
died  he  and  his  mother  and  the  nurse  were  alone  together  in  the  room. 
The  child  said  his  Sunday  school  teacher  was  in  the  room  with  them,  told 
how  she  was  dressed,  etc.  At  the  time  this  took  place  the  teacher,  who  had 
suddenly  died,  was  lying  in  her  casket.  The  child  had  not  been  informed 
of  her  death.  The. child  talked  to  her  much  as  one  would  talk  to  himself. 
The  boy  was  regarded  as  very  bright  and  was  highly  regarded  by  his 
Sunday  school  teacher.  The  child  was  about  eight  or  ten  years  old.  I 
will  take  the  liberty  to  send  you  part  of  the  letter  from  one  of  the  cousins 
who  has  been  trying  to  help  me  find  out  about  the  case.  Part  of  the  letter 
is  personal,  which  you  will  please  pardon,  as  I  can  send  you  nothing  of 
value  for  the  S.  P.  R.,  as  it  all  came  in.  too  much  round  about  way ;  I  will 
return  the  stamp  you  sent  me.  If  later  I  can  find  out  anything  more  or 
introduce  you  into  the  case  will  do  so,  but  can’t  now. 

“Yours  truly, 

“  Dr.  H.  L.  Coleman.” 

“  I  will  try  to  answer  the  question  you  asked  as  near  as  I  can ;  had  I 
been  talking  to  her  myself  I  could  have  remembered  it  and  wrote  it  down, 
but  Annie  did  n’t  pay  much  attention  to  it. 

“The  child  saw  his  teacher  the  day  before  he  died;  he  did  not  know 
she  was  dead ;  he  saw  her  soon  after  her  death ;  he  described  the  way  she 
was  dressed  as  she  lay  in  her  coffin.  No  one  said  anything  to  him  about 
it.  He  talked  as  if  talking  to  himself.  No  one  saw  child  except  the 
mother  and  nurse.  This  child  was  about  eight  years  old  and  very  bright; 
and  a  pet  of  his  teacher.  Now,  Harry,  I  have  written  about  all  Annie 
can  tell  me  and  you  will  have  to  content  yourself  with  this.  If  I  get  to 
see  Clara  this  coming  June  I  will  talk  to  her  myself. 

“  Your  cousin, 

“  Elsie.” 

The  follotving  incident  was  not  dated  in  the  informant’s  reply, 
and,  as  it  was  not  a  new:  incident,  its  interest  has  to  rest  on  the 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


H7 

authority  of  the  informant.  He  was  one  of  the  ablest  physicians 
in  his  city  and  himself  attached  some  value  to  the  facts,  though  not 
believing  in  a  spiritistic  hypothesis.  The  case  must  stand  for  what 
it  is  worth. 


“  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  [June,  1908]. 

“My  Dear  Mr.  Hyslop:  — 

I  have  not  been  entirely  inattentive  to  your  letter  of  May,  though  your 
recent  note  gave  my  purpose  a  needed  jog. 

“  Mrs.  H -  has  asked  me  to  lay  the  following  facts  and  circum¬ 

stances  before  you :  — 

“  Her  brother  died  in  1876,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  after  an  illness 
whose  entire  course  extended  intermittently  over  several  years.  His  grand¬ 
father  had  died  when  he  was  a  small  boy  of  about  five. 

“  The  grandfather’s  memory  was  dear  to  his  mother  and  her  family,  but 
during  this  brother’s  illness,  and  especially  toward  the  last  when  he  knew 
he  was  dying,  it  is  said  that  the  grandfather’s  memory  was  not  especially 
recalled. 

“  About  seven  in  the  evening,  after  he  had  been  sinking  and  was 
supposed  to  be  dying,  the  family  being  gathered  about  him,  he  opened 
his  eyes  and  said  “  Grandfather,”  and  looked  as  though  he  saw  some  one 
whom  he  addressed  thus.  He  lingered  through  the  night  and  died  the  next 
morning  early. 

“  So  long  a  time  has  elapsed  that  more  detailed  incidents  are  not  avail¬ 
able,  and  would  scarcely  be  reliable,  I  fancy. 

“  An  aunt  of  Mrs.  H - died  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  her  sister, 

Mrs.  H - ’s  mother.  As  she  was  dying  she  in  the  same  manner  as  though 

recognizing  some  one  dear  to  her,  said  ‘  Sis  ’ —  a  title  she  was  accustomed 
to  giving  her  sister.  The  bystanders  remarked  the  similarity  to  the  man¬ 
ner  and  speech  of  the  long-time  dead  brother  of  Mrs.  H - . 

“  So  far  as  these  incidents  are  of  service  you  are  welcome  to  make 
use  of  them  without  name,  unless  necessary  for  verification  of  their 
truthfulness. 

“  With  kind  regards  I  am, 

“  Cordially  yours, 

“Frank  Whitehill  H - .” 


The  following  incident  came  from  one  of  my  former  students, 
now  a  lawyer.  His  special  interest  in  the  matter  was  not  awakened 
until  he  lost  his  wife.  At  my  request  he  reported  the  present  in¬ 
cident,  after  narrating  it  to  me  personally.  The  gentleman  who 
might  have  corroborated  it  in  writing  was  reluctant  to  do  so, 
though  he  confirmed  it  viva  voce. 


148  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  March  3,  1908, 

“Dear  Professor:' — 

“  I  wish  to  give  you  the  written  account  which  you  asked  for  of  my 
observation  when  my  wife  died ;  she  was  a  very  spiritual  girl  and  I  always 
imagined  in  consequence  that  she  did  not  have  a  very  strong  grip  on  life 
and  was  ready  —  psychologically  and  not  voluntarily  —  to  relinquish  her 
hold.  She  was  the  youngest  of  a  large  family  and  was  the  particular  pet 
of  her  father  when  a  girl.  Both  her  parents  had  been  dead  about  ten 
years.  She  was  not  in  the  habit  of  mentioning  her  parents  particularly,  aiiu 
all  her  interests  were  centered  in  her  home.  The  last  thing  she  said  to  me 
before  she  died  was  that  she  complained  of  being  sleepy  and  from  then  on 
to  the  end,  some  two  hours,  she  was  not  very  conscious,  as  far  as  we  could 
see,  of  her  surroundings.  When  she  was  in  the  last  struggle  she  called 
out  ‘  Mama  ’  once  or  twice,  and  later  ‘  Papa !  Papa  !  take  me  up,  they  ore 
killing  me.’  (I  remember  this  distinctly.)  Shortly  afterwards,  some  ten 
minutes,  she  passed  away. 

“  Considering  that  she  did  not  frequently  speak  of  her  parents,  that  at 
and  shortly  prior  to  her  death  she  was  too  weak  to  speak  to  me,  but  never¬ 
theless  called  out  in  a  loud  voice  just  as  she  was  passing  away,  the  incident 
is  interesting  as  bearing  upon  the  mental  states  at  such  transitional 
periods. 

“Yours  faithfully, 

“  Harrison  Clark,  Jr.” 

The  following  incidents  explain  themselves;  one  of  them  is  espe¬ 
cially  interesting  because  it  is  associated  with  a  death  vision  by 
the  lady  herself  of  the  same  personality  that  had  appeared  as  a 
warning  of  the  death  of  others.  That  is,  we  have  an  ordinary 
apparition  premonitory  of  the  death  of  others  and  also  of  the  sub¬ 
ject  herself  when  she  died,  giving  a  double  interest  to  the  facts  and 
showing  that  the  two  types  must  have  the  same  explanation. 

“  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  March  18,  1907. 

“  Dr.  James  H.  Hyslop. 

“  Dear  Sir : — 

“  My  mother  used  to  say  that  whenever  there  was  about  to  occur  the 
death  of  a  friend  or  relative,  she  saw  her  own  mother  standing  beside  her 
and  looking  at  her.  The  first  time  that  I  knew  of  this  vision  of  hers  was 
when  I  was  a  girl  of  about  twelve.  My  mother’s  most  intimate  friend, 
outside  her  own  family,  was  dangerously  ill.  In  the  evening  mother  came 
from  the  friend’s  house  and  coming  into  my  room  got  into  bed  with  me. 
When  I  awoke  in  the  morning  mother  was  sitting  on  the  edge  of  the  bed 
in  a  brown  study.  I  spoke  to  her  and  she  roused  herself  and  said:  ‘I 
fear  Mrs.  F - is  no  more.’  I  asked  her  why  she  said  that  and  she  re¬ 

plied:  ‘  Mother  appeared  to  me  just  now.’  Then  she  explained  her  belief 
that  grandmother  always  appeared  to  her  before  the  death  of  anyone  she 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


149 

loved,  and  added:  ‘As  I  opened  my  eyes  this  morning,  lying  there  beside 
you,  I  saw  mother  standing  looking  over  the  foot-board  of  the  bed  at  me, 
very  intently.’ 

“  In  less  than  an  hour  my  aunt  came  up  from  Mrs.  F.’s  to  say  that  she 
had  passed  away  early  in  the  morning. 

“  I  do  not  distinctly  recall  any  other  instance  of  this  hallucination  of 
hers  until  the  morning  before  her  own  death,  about  fifteen  years  later. 
She  had  had  an  attack  of  pneumonia,  but  the  doctor  had  said  that  she  was 
better  and  I  was  feeling  much  easier  about  her.  I  was  taking  care  of  her 
alone  that  night.  About  four  in  the  morning,  when  I  went  up  to  the 
bed  to  give  her  medicine  or  stimulant  —  I  have  forgotten  which  —  she 
aroused  from  a  light  slumber,  looked  up  at  me  very  keenly  and  said: 
‘  Mother  has  just  been  with  me.’  The  significance  of  it  flashed  over  me 
at  once  and  I  could  hardly  control  myself  enough  to  give  her  the  medicine 
I  had  in  my  hand.  I  went  into  the  other  room  at  once  to  call  father  to 
go  for  the  doctor.  Before  he  could  arrive  she  had  sunk  into  a  stupor,  and 
passed  away  in  a  few  hours.  Those  were  the  last  conscious  words,  or 
rather  I  should  say  intelligible  words  that  she  ever  spoke  to  me.  They 
were  spoken  in  as  clear  and  distinct  a  voice  as  she  ever  used. 

“  She  died  of  heart  failure,  a  reaction  from  pneumonia.  My  grand¬ 
mother  died  a  month  before  I  was  born. 

“  Another  incident  that  I  have  only  by  hearsay  was  this :  My  mother 
told  me  that  her  father,  on  his  death-bed,  and  when  they  thought  he  was 
just  about  gone,  suddenly  raised  a  little  from  his  pillow,  opened  his  eyes 
wide  and  called  out  in  a  glad,  clear  tone:  ‘Why,  Dada  !  ’  This  was  the 
name  of  his  wife’s  brother  with  whom,  as  a  young  man,  he  had  been  very 
intimate,  and  who  had  been  dead  for  many  years.” 

Instances  of  the  same  kind  are  much  more  numerous  than  those 
we  have  quoted,  though  they  are  not  recorded  as  they  should  have 
been.  One  good  instance,  which  happened  in  the  family  of  Mr. 
James  G.  Blaine,  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter,  should  have 
been  recorded  in  detail.  But  the  witnesses  of  it  seem  not  to  have 
appreciated  its  scientific  interest.  Probably  the  majority  of  sim¬ 
ilar  incidents  escape  all  but  the  immediate  witnesses  and  generally 
they  are  regarded  as  too  personal  for  scientific  notice.  They  are 
not  quoted  here  as  of  themselves  satisfactory  scientific  proof  of 
survival,  though  in  sufficient  numbers  and  properly  observed  they 
might  be  adequate  even  to  that  purpose.  They  at  least  suggest 
what  other  methods  might  establish  or  corroborate,  and  are  so 
free  from  objections  obtrusive  in  other  phenomena  that  they  de¬ 
serve  a  first  place  among  spontaneous  incidents  in  favor  of  sur¬ 
vival. 


1 50  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

I  next  take  up  another  type  of  apparition  which  requires  spe¬ 
cially  good  credentials  to  escape  the  suspicion  of  casual  hallucina¬ 
tion.  But,  as  chance  has  been  excluded  from  the  explanation  even 
of  phantasms  of  the  living,  we  may  illustrate  a  type  from  whose 
interpretation  telepathy  is  also  excluded,  though,  apparently  at  least, 
they  are  not  so  common  as  phantasms  of  the  living,  including  those 
of  dying  persons. 

Phantasms  of  the  dead  are  not  easily  classified  as  examples  of 
telepathy.  We  cannot  specify  the  agent  without  either  unwar¬ 
rantably  extending  the  telepathy  or  making  the  deceased  person 
the  agent.  The  latter  assumes  that  the  facts  are  evidence  of  sur¬ 
vival  ;  and  we  may  take  such  instances  as  spontaneous  evidence  for 
survival,  though  we  may  not  regard  this  evidence  as  conclusive 
unless  the  facts  become  numerous  enough  and  well  enough  estab¬ 
lished  to  be  on  the  same  level  as  experimental  phenomena. 

The  first  report  of  the  English  Com,mittee  on  Haunted  Houses 
mentions  a  number  of  good  instances.  One  of  them  involves  ex¬ 
periences  by  two  persons.^ 

“  In  the  early  spring  of  1852,  Mr.  X.  Z.  went  to  reside  in  a  large  old 
house  near  C - .  Mr.  X.  Z.  only  occupied  part  of  the  house,  the  re¬ 
mainder  being  inhabited  by  a  friend  of  his  own,  Mr.  G - ,  and  some  pupils. 

Air.  G - had  occupied  the  house  about  a  year  before  Mr.  X.  Z.’s  arrival ; 

and  two  servants  had,  in  that  interval,  given  him  warning,  on  account  of 
strange  noises  which  they  had  heard.  The  house,  which  is  a  large  one, 
was  let  at  an  extremely  low  rent. 

“  On  the  night  of  the  22nd  of  September,  1852,  at  about  i  a.  m.  Mr. 
X.  Z.  went  up  to  his  bedroom.  The  house  was  in  complete  darkness, 
and  he  took  no  candle  with  him ;  but  on  opening  a  door  which  led  into 
the  passage  where  his  room  was  situated,  he  found  the  whole  passage  filled 
with  light.  The  light  was  white  like  daylight,  or  electric  light,  and  brighter 
than  moonlight.  At  first  Mr.  X.  Z.  was  dazzled  by  the  light,  but  when  his 
eyes  became  used  to  it  he  saw,  standing  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  about 
thirty-five  feet  from  him,  an  old  man  in  a  figured  dressing-gown.  The 
face  of  this  old  man,  which  Mr.  X.  Z.  saw  quite  clearly,  was  most  hideous; 
so  evil  was  it  that  both  expression  and  features  were  firmly  imprinted  on 
his  memory.  As  Mr.  X.  Z.  was  still  looking,  figure  and  light  both  van¬ 
ished,  and  left  him  in  pitch  darkness.  Mr.  X.  Z.  did  not,  at  that  time,  be¬ 
lieve  in  ghosts,  and  his  first  thought  was  (he  had  lately  read  Brewster’s 
‘  Natural  Magic,’  and  had  been  much  impressed  with  the  striking  cases 
of  spectral  illusion  recorded  in  that  work)  that  he  was  the  subject  of  a 

^  “  Proceedings,”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol.  I,  p.  106. 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS  151 

Iiallucination.  He  did  not  feel  at  all  frightened,  but  resolved  to  take  a 
dose  of  physic  in  the  morning.  The  next  day,  however,  remembering  the 
tales  told  by  the  two  servants  who  had  left,  he  made  inquiries  in  the  vil¬ 
lage  as  to  the  past  history  of  the  house.  At  first  he  could  find  out  nothing, 
but  finally  an  old  lawyer  told  him  that  he  had  heard  that  the  grandfather 
of  the  present  owner  of  the  house  had  strangled  his  wife  and  then  cut  his 
own  throat,  on  the  very  spot  where  Mr.  X.  Z.  had  seen  the  figure.  The 
lawyer  was  unable  to  give  the  exact  date  of  this  occurrence,  but  Mr.  X.  Z. 
consulted  the  parish  register,  and  found  the  two  deaths  recorded  as  having 
taken  place  on  the  22nd  September,  179 —  (the  precise  year  he  could  not  now 
(1882)  remember).  The  lawyer  added  he  had  heard  that  the  old  man  was 
in  the  habit  of  walking  about  the  house  in  a  figured  dressing-gown,  and  had 
the  reputation  of  being  half  an  imbecile. 

“  On  the  22nd  September,  1853,  a  friend  of  Mr.  G - ’s  arrived  to  make 

a  short  stay.  He  came  down  to  breakfast  the  following  morning,  looking 
very  pale,  and  announced  his  intention  of  terminating  his  visit  immedi¬ 
ately.  Mr.  G -  rather  angrily  insisted  on  knowing  the  reason  of  his 

sudden  departure ;  and  the  young  man,  when  pressed,  reluctantly  explained 
that  he  had  been  kept  awake  all  night  by  the  sound  of  cryings  and  groan- 
ings,  blasphemous  oaths,  and  cries  of  despair.  The  door  of  his  bedroom 
opened  on  to  the  spot  where  the  murderer  had  committed  suicide;  and  it 
was  in  the  bedroom  which  he  had  occupied  that  the  murder  had  been  com¬ 
mitted.  In  1856,  Mr.  X.  Z.  and  his  friend  had  occasion  to  call  on  their  land¬ 
lord,  who  lived  in  London.  On  being  shown  into  the  room,  Mr.  X.  Z.  at 
once  recognized  a  picture  above  the  mantel-piece  as  being  that  of  the 
figure  which  he  had  seen.  The  portrait,  how'ever,  had  been  taken  when 
the  man  was  younger,  and  the  expression  was  not  so  hideous.  He  called 

Mr.  G - ’s  attention  to  the  painting,  saying:  ‘That  is  the  man  w'hom 

1  saw.’ 

“  The  landlord,  on  being  asked  whom  the  portrait  represented,  replied 
that  it  was  the  portrait  of  his  grandfather,  adding  that  he  had  been  no 
credit  to  the  family.” 

The  incident  lacks  nothing  in  dramatic  interest,  but  is  old,  though 
well  authenticated.  It  would  take  many  such  to  enforce  a  conclu¬ 
sion;  and  only  the  certification  of  a  large  number  of  more  recent 
cases,  such  as  those  which  “  Phantasms  of  the  Living  ”  presents, 
could  justify  the  use  of  such  an  incident  for  illustration.  But  there 
are  similar  instances. 

In  a  paper  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick  on  “  Phantasms  of  the  Dead  ”  *  an 
incident  is  recorded,  which  will  have  to  be  abbreviated.  Its  interest 
lies  in  the  unconscious  testimony  of  a  child  to  an  experience  whose 
meaning  he  did  not  know. 


1  “  Proceedings,”  English  S.  P.  R.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  87. 


152  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

A  man  died  in  1875,  leaving  a  widow  and  six  children.  The  three  eldest 
children  were  admitted  to  an  orphanage.  Three  years  afterwards  the 
widow  died,  and  then  the  three  remaining  children  were  admitted  to  the 
orphanage.  Some  visitors  came  one  day ;  and,  as  the  place  was  full,  the 
warden  took  a  bed  in  the  little  ones’  dormitory.  In  the  night  he  suddenly 
awoke  and  saw  a  soft  light  in  the  room.  He  saw  that  it  was  not  the  gas 
light  from  the  hall,  and,  turning  round,  he  saw  a  wonderful  vision.  Over 
the  second  bed  from  his,  and  on  the  same  side  of  the  room,  there  was  float¬ 
ing  a  small  cloud  of  light,  forming  a  halo  of  the  brightness  of  the  moon 
on  an  ordinary  moonlight  night.  In  this  bed  slept  the  youngest  of  the 
six  children.  The  warden  took  the  trouble  to  note  that  he  was  not  dream¬ 
ing,  but  went  to  sleep  again.  In  the  morning,  wdiile  dressing,  this  youngest 
child  looked  at  the  warden  with  an  extraordinary  expression,  and  said : 

“Oh,  Mr.  Jupp,  my  mother  came  to  me  last  night.  Did  you  see  her?” 
The  warden  did  not  answer  the  child,  though  astonished  at  the  statement, 
and  nothing  more  was  said  about  it. 

This  is  practically  a  case  of  shared  experience,  as  two  persons 
had  an  experience  at  approximately  the  same  time.  The  following 
is  from  the  same  list  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick.  It  was  received  from  Mrs. 
Windridge,  whose  address  was  given  in  the  account. 

“  November  9,  1882. 

“  About  the  year  1869,  I  was  much  interested  in  a  poor  woman  who 
was  dying  in  my  neighborhood.  I  used  to  visit  her  frequently,  until  my 
friends  prevented  me  from  going  any  more,  as  the  excitement  rendered 
me  ill.  Eventually,  when  she  died,  they  concealed  the  fact  from  me  for 
some  days. 

“  I  was  taking  my  little  boy,  three  years  old,  up  to  bed  one  evening.  It 
was  dusk;  and,  when  half-way  up  the  first  flight  of  stairs,  I  distinctly  felt 
a  pressure  and  a  rustling  of  a  dress  at  my  side,  as  if  a  woman  had  brushed 
past  me.  There  was  no  one  there.  On  the  second  flight  the  pressure  was 
repeated,  but  more  unmistakably.  The  occurrence  made  me  so  nervous 
that,  having  put  the  boy  to  bed,  I  decided  to  remain  with  him  until  my  hus¬ 
band  came  in.  I  accordingly  lay  down  on  the  bed,  facing  him. 

“  Suddenly  the  boy  started  up.  ‘  Oh,  mother,  there  is  a  lady  standing 
behind  you !  ’  At  the  same  moment  I  felt  a  pressure  which  I  knew  to  be 
that  of  my  friend.  I  dared  not  look  round. 

“  When  my  husband  returned,  I  heard  for  the  first  time  that  my  friend 
had  died  three  days  before.” 

Again  the  experience  was  shared,  and  bears  the  marks  of  pur¬ 
pose.  The  next  has  a  human  interest  and  is  from  the  same  col¬ 
lection.  It  was  recorded  by  the  Rev.  C.  C.  Wambey. 

“  During  my  residence  in  B.  C.,  as  curate  in  charge,  it  was  my  custom 
in  the  summer  evenings  to  walk  over  the  neighboring  downs. 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


153 

“  On  the  evening  of  Sunday,  August  20,  1874,  I  was  strolling  on  the 
downs  skirting  Marlcombe  Hill,  composing  a  congratulatory  letter,  which 
I  proposed  to  write  and  post  to  my  very  dear  friend  W.,  so  that  he  might 
have  it  on  his  birthday,  the  twenty-second,  when  I  heard  a  voice  saying, 
‘What,  write  to  a  dead  man;  write  to  a  dead  man!’  I  turned  sharply 
round,  fully  expecting  to  see  some  one  close  behind  me.  There  was  no 
one.  Treating  the  matter  as  an  illusion,  I  went  on  with  my  composition. 
A  second  time  I  heard  the  same  voice,  saying,  more  loudly  than  before, 
‘  What,  write  to  a  dead  man ;  write  to  a  dead  man  1  ’  Again  I  turned  round. 
I  was  alone,  at  least  bodily.  I  now  fully  understood  the  meaning  of  that 
voice;  it  was  no  illusion. 

“  Notwithstanding  this,  I  sent  the  proposed  letter,  and  in  reply  received 
from  Mrs.  W.  the  sad,  but  to  me  not  unexpected,  intelligence  that  her  hus¬ 
band  was  dead.” 

Here  is  another  brief  instance  from  the  same  collection;  it  was 
the  only  experience  of  Mrs.  Haly,  w'ho  reported  it. 

“On  waking  in  broad  daylight,  I  saw,  like  a  shadowed  reflection,  a  very 
long  coffin  stretching  quite  across  the  ceiling  of  my  room,  and  as  I  lay 
gazing  at  it,  and  wondering  at  its  length  and  whose  death  it  could  fore¬ 
shadow,  my  eyes  fell  on  a  shadowy  figure  of  an  absent  nephew,  with  his 
back  towards  me,  searching,  as  it  were,  in  my  book-shelf.  That  morning’s 
post  brought  the  news  of  his  death  in  Australia.  He  was  six  foot  two  or 
three  inches  in  height,  and  a  book,  taken  from  that  very  bookcase,  had  been 
my  last  present  to  him  on  his  leaving  England. 

The  next  instance  from  the  same  list,  a  long  one,  is  also  re¬ 
ported  by  a  clergyman.  The  writer  was  the  Rev.  Gerrard  Lewis, 
of  St.  Paul’s  Vicarage,  Margate.  The  account  was  given  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Podmore.  The  story  had  been  published  in  “  Tem¬ 
ple  Bar.” 

“I  have  nothing  to  add  to  my  ‘true  ghost  story’  in  ‘Temple  Bar.’  As 
to  dates,  he  died  on  Thursday,  September  19,  1866.  I  saw  his  appearance 
on  Sunday,  September  22,  and  officiated  at  his  funeral  on  Wednesday,  Sep¬ 
tember  25. 

“  My  wife’s  mother  had  in  her  service  a  coachman  named  P.,  with  one 
son,  James  Henry  P.,  who  had  been  brought  up  by  friends  at  a  distance, 
and  was  apprenticed  to  a  trade  in  London.  His  father  had  only  twice 
casually  mentioned  him  to  me,  and  he  had  almost  entirely  slipped  out  of  my 
mind,  for,  with  a  large  seaside  parish  on  my  hands,  of  which  I  was  curate, 
my  time  and  attention  were  fully  taken  up  with  matters  nearer  home.  I 
mention  this,  lest  in  the  course  of  the  following  story  my  readers  should 
chance  to  think  that  a  deep  impression,  previously  made  on  my  own  mind, 
had  predisposed  me  to  see  what  I  saw,  and  afterwards  to  regard  it  in 
a  supernatural  light.  I  cannot,  therefore,  too  emphatically  repeat  that 


154  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

I  knew  next  to  nothing  about  James  Henry  P.,  my  friend’s  son;  that 
I  had  never  seen  him;  and  seldom,  if  ever,  thought  of  him  at  all. 

“  It  was  a  hot  and  bright  afternoon  in  summer,  and,  as  if  it  were 
only  yesterday,  I  remember  perfectly  well  walking  down  the  broad 
bright  street  in  the  broad  bright  afternoon.  I  had  to  pass  the  house 
of  P.  I  remarked  indeed  that  all  his  window  blinds  were  drawn  care¬ 
fully  down,  as  if  to  screen  his  furniture,  of  which  his  wife  was  inordi¬ 
nately  proud,  from  the  despoiling  blaze  of  the  afternoon  sun.  I  smiled 
inwardly  at  the  thought.  I  then  left  the  road,  stepped  up  on  the  side 
pavement,  and  looked  over  the  area  rails  into  the  front  court  below. 
A  young  man,  dressed  in  dark  clothes,  and  without  a  hat,  and  apparently 
about  twenty  years  of  age,  was  standing  at  the  door  beneath  the  front 
steps.  On  the  instant,  from  his  likeness  to  my  friend  P.,  I  seemed  to 
recognize  his  son.  We  both  stood  and  looked  very  hard  at  each  other. 
Suddenly,  however,  he  advanced  to  that  part  of  the  area  which  was 
immediately  below  where  I  was  standing,  fixed  on  me  a  wide,  dilated, 
winkless  sort  of  stare,  and  halted.  The  desire  to  speak  was  evidently 
legible  on  his  face,  though  nothing  audible  escaped  from  his  lips.  But 
his  eyes  spoke ;  every  feature  in  his  countenance  spoke,  spoke,  as  it 
were,  a  silent  language,  in  which  reproach  and  pain  seemed  equally 
intermingled.  At  first  I  was  startled;  then  I  began  to  feel  angry. 
‘Why,’  I  said  to  myself,  ‘does  he  look  at  me  in  that  manner?’  At 
last,  annoyance  prevailing  over  surprise,  I  turned  away  with  the  half- 
muttered  thought :  ‘  He  certainly  knows  me  by  sight  as  a  friend  of 
ihis  father,  and  yet  has  not  the  civility  to  salute  me.  I  will  call  on 
the  first  opportunity  and  ask  his  reason  for  such  behavior.’  I  then 
pursued  my  way  and  thought  no  more  of  what  had  just  occurred. 

“  On  Wednesday  it  was  my  turn  to  officiate  at  the  local  cemetery.  On 
my  asking  who  was  to  be  buried,  I  was  told  that  it  was  a  young  man 
from  my  quarter  of  the  town,  who  had  died  of  consumption.  I  cannot 
give  the  reason,  but  immediately  I  felt  startled  and  ill  at  ease.  It  was 
not  that  I  had  the  least  suspicion  that  anything  extraordinary  was  about 
to  happen.  I  had  quite  forgotten  young  P.  The  feeling  which  I  think 
was  uppermost  in  my  mind  was  anpoyance  at  the  fact  that  anyone 
should  have  died  of  such  a  slow  disease  in  my  parish,  but  without  my 
knowledge.  I  asked  without  delay  for  the  registrar’s  certificate.  My 
eyes  fell  on  the  words,  ‘James  Henry  P.,  aged  twenty-one  years.’  I 
could  scarcely  believe  my  own  senses. 

“  I  lost  but  little  time  before  calling  on  P.  and  his  wife.  I  found  the 
latter  at  home,  and  what  she  had  to  say  only  made  me  more  uncomfortable 
still.  James  Henry  P.  bore  such  a  close  resemblance  to  his  father  that 
all  who  saw  him  remarked  on  the  striking  likeness.  In  addition  to  this, 
during  the  last  three  months  of  his  life,  which  he  spent  under  his  father’s 
roof,  he  had  often  wondered  that  I  did  not  come  to  see  him.  His  longing 
for  an  interview  with  me  had  been  most  intense ;  and  every  time  he  saw  me 
pass  the  house  without  going  in  he  had  both  felt  and  expressed  a  keen  dis¬ 
appointment.  In  fact,  he  died  terribly  in  earnest,  wishing  in  vain  to 
the  last  that  I  would  come.  That  thought  pierced  me  through  and 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


155 

through.  I  had  not  gone  to  him,  but  he  had  come  to  me.  And  yet  I 
would  have  gone,  if  I  had  but  known.  I  blame  the  doctor  for  not  telling 
me ;  I  blame  the  parents  for  not  sending  for  me ;  and  with  that  awful 
look  he  gave  me  in  my  remembrance,  I  blame  myself,  though  I  cannot 
tell  why. 

“  James  Henry  P.  had  died  on  the  Thursday  before  the  Sunday  on  which 
I  had  seen  him.  He  had  died,  too,  in  the  front  room,  on  a  level  with  the 
area,  into  which  its  window  opened.  He  had  also  lain  there  till  the 
Wednesday  following,  awaiting  burial.  His  corpse  then  was  lying  in 
that  very  room  on  that  very  Sunday,  and  at  the  very  moment,  too,  when 
I  had  seen  his  living  likeness,  as  it  were,  in  the  area  outside.  Nobody, 
I  found,  had  passed  through  the  area  that  day;  the  door  there  had  been 
locked  and  unused  all  the  Sunday.  The  very  milkman,  the  only  person 
who  called,  had  come  by  the  front  steps  to  the  house;  and  P.  and  his 
wife  were  the  only  inmates  at  the  time.” 

Another  long  case  follows  this,  and  tells  of  the  appearance  of 
a  young  man,  to  say  that  he  did  not  do  what  he  was  accused  of. 
Inquiry  showed  that  he  had  been  accused  of  committing  suicide. 
Later  it  was  found  that  the  accusation  was  not  true.  Another 
represents  two  persons  seeing  a  phantasm  of  the  same  person 
whose  relation  to  the  place  was  wholly  unknown  to  them,  though 
afterwards  verified. 

Mr.  Myers  quotes  from  the  “  Census  of  Hallucinations,”  Vol¬ 
ume  X  of  the  English  “  Proceedings,”  a  case  of  which  that  report 
says :  “  Unless  we  accept  the  hypothesis  of  chance  coincidence, 

the  evidence  for  the  agency  of  the  dead  is  certainly  strong,  be¬ 
cause  any  other  explanation  compatible  with  the  veracity  of  the 
narrators  requires  a  very  complicated  and  improbable  hypothe¬ 
sis.”  The  following  is  the  narrative  [p.  383]  : 

“  Rio  de  Janeiro,  March  12,  1892. 

[After  relating  his  first  meeting,  in  June,  1886,  with  “  Deolinda,”  a 
child  whom  he  had  found  in  great  poverty  and  had  taken  charge  of,  and 
her  death  from  consumption  shortly  afterwards,  Senor  Cabral  continues ;  — ] 

“  Some  months  passed,  and  my  family  (which  now  included  my  wife’s 
other  sister,  Amelia)  went  to  stay  at  a  plantation  belonging  to  friends. 
I  escorted  them  thither,  and  returned  to  attend  to  my  obligations  in  the 
city.  In  order  not  to  be  alone,  I  accepted  the  invitation  of  my  friend, 
Barboza  de  Andrade,  and  went  to  live  with  him  in  S.  Christovam.  One 
month  afterwards,  a  sister  of  Barboza’s,  who  was  ill,  came  into  his  house. 
She  grew  daily  worse,  and  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  months  had  sunk  so 
low  that  we  had  to  sit  up  with  her  at  night. 

“One  night  when  I  had  taken  my  turn  at  nursing,  I  felt  sleepy,  and 


1 56  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

went  to  lie  down.  Two  sisters,  Donnas  Anna  Ignez  Dias  Fortes  and 
Feliciana  Dias  (now  deceased),  took  my  place.  I  had  made  their  ac¬ 
quaintance  but  a  few  days  before.  After  stretching  myself  on  the  bed, 

I  was  filled  with  a  feeling  of  unbounded  joy.  I  was  happy,  and  could 
not  imagine  what  was  the  cause  of  my  happiness.  I  had  a  sensation 
as  if  some  one  were  holding  my  head  and  placing  something  round  it. 

“  Astonished  at  my  experience,  I  called  to  the  ladies  who  were  watch¬ 
ing  in  the  next  room,  and  Donna  Feliciana,  though  from  the  place  where 
she  was  seated  she  could  not  see  me,  answered  me  back,  ‘  I  see  at  your 
bedside  a  spirit  child  clothed  in  white.  She  places  on  your  head  a  crown 
of  roses.  She  says  her  name  is  Deolinda,  and  she  comes  to  thank  you 
for  the  kindness  and  charity  with  which  you  behaved  to  her.’  I  was 
amazed  at  such  a  declaration,  for  that  very  day  was  the  anniversary 
of  Deolinda’s  death,  and  neither  I  nor  any  other  person  in  the  house 
had  recollected  this.  Besides,  I  had  never  spoken  on  the  subject. 

“  Ulysses  Cabral.” 

The  two  ladies  write  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the  story  of 
Deolinda  and  confirm  the  narrative  as  told.  The  incident  is 
especially  interesting  as  involving  a  tactual  phantasm  by  Sehor 
Cabral  himself,  veridical  in  nature,  and  probably  affected  by  the 
condition  of  the  dying  woman,  as  it  is  possible  that  phantasms  of 
the  kind  require  some  energy  supplied  by  the  living  who  are  in  a 
state  to  generate  it,  a  state  on  the  border-land  of  death. 

The  next  case  is  remarkably  interesting,  as  it  is  not  only  a 
phantasm  of  the  dead,  but  is  accompanied  by  the  account  of  a 
phantasm  of  another  person  definitely  related  to  the  decedent 
and  appearing  to  other  persons  as  a  premonition  of  her  death, 
and  is  also  a  vision  of  the  dying  person,  so  that  it  combines  three 
characteristics  of  great  interest.  It  also  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Myers 
from  the  “  Census  of  Hallucinations.”  Mrs.  B.  is  the  writer  of 
the  narrative. 


“  April,  1892. 

“  At  Fiesole,  on  March  ii,  1869,  I  was  giving  my  little  children  their  din¬ 
ner  at  halDpast  one  o’clock.  It  was  a  fine  hot  day.  As  I  was  in  the  act  of 
serving  macaroni  and  milk  from  a  high  tureen,  so  that  I  had  to  stand 
to  reach  it,  and  give  my  attention  to  what  I  was  doing, —  on  raising  my 
head  (as  much  from  fatigue  as  for  any  purpose),  the  wall  opposite  me 
seemed  to  open,  and  I  saw  my  mother  lying  dead  on  her  bed  in  her  little 

house  at - .  Some  flowers  were  at  her  side  and  on  her  breast :  she 

looked  calm,  but  unmistakably  dead,  and  the  coffin  was  there. 

”  It  was  so  real  that  I  could  scarcely  believe  that  the  wall  was  really 
brick  and  mortar,  and  not  a  transparent  window  —  in  fact,  it  was  a 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS  157 

wall  dividing  the  hotel  in  which  we  were  living  from  the  Carabinieri. 

“I  was  in  very  weak  health  —  suffering  intensely  with  neuralgia  — 
having  gone  through  a  bad  confinement,  brought  on  by  traveling,  the 
baby  was  almost  still  born,  on  January  31. 

“  Owing  to  a  family  quarrel,  I  had  left  England  without  telling  my  peo¬ 
ple  where  I  was  going;  but  I  was  so  fond  of  my  mother  that,  when  in 
Paris,  I  made  an  excuse  to  write  to  an  old  servant,  who  lived  with  my 
mother,  to  ask  her  for  a  toy  which  w'e  had  left  with  her, —  the  object  being 
to  get  news  of  my  mother.  Reply  came  that  for  years  she  had  not  been 
so  well  and  strong;  thus  I  had  no  reason  for  imagining  her  to  be  dead. 

“I  was  so  distressed  at  the  vision,  that  I  wrote  to  her  (my  mother) 
to  give  her  my  address,  and  entreat  her  to  let  me  know  how  she  was. 
By  return  of  post  came  the  statement  that  she  had  died  on  March  5,  and 
was  buried  on  the  eleventh.  At  the  hour  I  saw  her,  she  was  removed  from 
her  home  to  Kensal  Green  Cemetery.  She  had  wished  to  see  me  so 
much  that  letters  had  been  sent  to  a  great  many  continental  cities,  hoping 
I  might  be  found;  but  I  never  got  a  letter  from  my  sister  till  long  after 
I  had  received  the  news  of  my  mother’s  death. 

“  When  I  was  married,  my  mother  made  me  promise,  as  I  was  leaving 
home,  to  be  sure  to  let  her  know  in  any  way  God  permitted  if  I  died,  and 
she  would  try  to  find  some  way  of  communicating  to  me  the  fact  of  her 
death  —  supposing  that  circumstances  prevented  the  usual  methods  of  v/rit- 
ing  or  telegraphing.  I  considered  the  vision  a  fulfilment  of  this  promise, 
for  my  mind  was  engrossed  with  my  own  grief  and  pain  —  the  loss  of 
baby,  and  my  neuralgia,  and  the  anxieties  of  starting  a  new  life. 

“  My  youngest  sister,  since  dead,  was  called  to  my  mother  and  left 
Devonshire,  where  she  was  staying  with  friends,  to  come  home.  When 
she  arrived  at  home,  she  entered  the  drawing-room,  but  rushed  out  ter¬ 
rified,  exclaiming  that  she  had  seen  godniamma,  who  was  seated  by  the  fire 
in  my  mother’s  chair.  Godmamma  had  been  dead  since  1852.  She  had 
been  my  mother’s  governess  —  almost  foster-mother ;  had  lived  with  her 
during  her  married  life,  been  godmother  to  her  eldest  girl,  and  when  my 
father  died  had  accepted  the  duty  of  taking  his  place  as  far  as  possible  in 
the  family,  to  shield  her  from  trouble  and  protect  her  —  a  duty  which 
she  fulfilled  nobly. 

“  My  other  sister  went  into  the  drawing-room  to  see  what  had  scared 

K - ,  and  saw  the  figure  of  godmamma  just  as  K - had.  Later  in  the 

day,  the  same  figure  stood  by,  then  sat  on  the  edge  of  my  mother’s  bed, 
and  was  seen  by  both  my  sisters  and  the  old  servant,  looking  just  as  she 
had  when  alive,  except  that  she  wore  a  gray  dress,  and,  as  far  as  we 
could  remember,  she  had  always  worn  black.  My  mother  saw  her,  for 
she  turned  towards  her  and  said  ‘  Mary  ’ —  her  name.” 

This  is  also  an  instance  of  what  the  English  investigators  call  a 
“  compact  case,”  which  means  an  instance  in  which  the  parties  con¬ 
cerned  had  made  a  promise  between  them  to  return.  George 
Pelham  was  a  case  of  the  kind ‘and  Mr.  Myers  enumerates  twelve 


158  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

such  cases.  But  I  turn  uow  to  some  American  instances  of  the 
kind ;  I  shall  only  summarize  the  first  case. 

A  man  died  on  April  12,  1905.  On  the  twentieth  of  May  follow¬ 
ing,  the  sister-in-law  was  washing  the  dishes  in  the  kitchen,  and  her 
sister  was  playing  the  piano,  when  the  sister  in  the  kitchen  saw  an 
apparition  of  her  brother-in-law  lying  in  bed  straight  in  front  of 
her  just  where  she  had  seen  him  for  the  last  month  of  his  life. 
The  music  played  on  the  piano  was  the  same  that  the  sister  had 
played  for  him  during  his  last  illness. 

The  next  case  I  must  also  abbreviate,  as  it  is  very  long.  It  is 
reported  by  Dr.  Hey  singer,  who  took  it  from  the  autobiography  of 
Captain  Little,  of  the  merchant  service  out  of  Baltimore.  The 
book  was  entitled,  “  Life  on  the  Ocean;  or.  Twenty  Years  at  Sea.” 

It  was  a  clear  night.  All  had  turned  in.  About  midnight  the 
captain  was  called  by  the  sailor  on  the  watch,  who  said  that  there 
was  on  deck  a  woman  dressed  in  black,  who  was  calling  for  him. 
Believing  the  sailor  to  be  half  drunk,  as  was  generally  the  case  at 
that  period,  the  captain  drove  him  away ;  but  the  sailor  persisted  in 
his  statement  and  pointed  out  the  place  where  he  had  seen  and  talked 
with  the  woman.  Diligent  search  revealed  nothing  and  they  all 
turned  in  again.  About  two  hours  later  another  sailor,  who  was 
a  perfectly  sober  man,  called  the  captain  again  with  the  same  story 
of  a  woman  calling  for  the  captain.  The  crew  corroborated  his 
testimony.  Search  was  made  again  but  without  effect.  The  sail¬ 
ors,  being  somewhat  superstitious,  wanted  to  be  discharged,  but  the 
captain  would  not  listen  to  it.  They  felt  that  the  apparition  was  a 
premonition  that  the  ship  was  going  down.  On  the  captain’s  stub¬ 
born  refusal  they  went  to  work,  and  the  ship  stood  out  to  sea. 
On  the  second  day  they  encountered  a  terrific  storm  and  all  were 
fearful  of  the  consequences.  At  midnight,  precisely,  the  ghostly 

vistor  appeared  again,  but  neither  Captain  C - nor  the  narrator 

of  the  story  saw  it.  The  vessel  reached  Martinique  safely  and 
went  thence  to  Guadaloupe,  where  yellow  fever  seized  some  of  the 
crew ;  during  the  raging  of  this  malady  the  same  visitor  was  seen 
again  by  the  crew.  On  reaching  home  after  the  return  voyage. 
Captain  C -  received  a  letter  saying  that  his  wife  was  dead. 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


159 

On  comparing  the  time  of  her  demise  with  that  of  the  first  ap¬ 
pearance  of  the  lady  in  black,  while  the  ship  lay  in  Annapolis  Roads, 
he  found  that  the  time  exactly  corresponded. 

But  for  the  subsequent  apparitions  this  case  would  be  classified 
with  phantasms  of  the  living  or  of  those  just  dying.  The  next  in¬ 
stance  is  a  “  compact  case  ”  and  was  reported  to  me  by  the  Rev. 
A.  B.  Weymouth,  a  missionary  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

“  Lahaina,  Hawaiian  Islands,  October  24,  1910. 

“  Dear  Dr.  Hyslop : 

“  When  I  was  living  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  I  became  acquainted 

with  Mrs.  Jennie  D - who  seemed  to  be  a  congenial  soul.  In  the  autumn 

of  1888,  Mrs.  D -  and  I  made  a  verbal  agreement  that  the  one  who 

should  first  enter  the  spiritual  world  should  return  (d.v.)  and  appear  to  the 
other.  In  the  spring  of  1898,  the  lady  became  seriously  ill  and  after  a 
few  months  of  suffering  passed  away.  As  no  tidings  came  from  the 
deceased,  I  supposed  that  some  unexpected  obstacle  prevented  her  return. 
But  at  last  the  long  silence  was  broken.  On  Saturday  evening,  October 
22,  1910,  I  retired  to  rest  soon  after  nine  o’clock.  After  refreshing  sleep 
I  awoke,  with  the  impression  that  something  unusual  was  about  to  happen. 
Then  I  distinctly  heard  a  voice  saying:  ‘Jennie  D.  is  coming.’  A  few 
moments  later,  something  like  a  bright  cloud  appeared  in  my  bedroom. 
In  the  midst  of  the  cloud  I  recognized  the  form  of  my  long  lost  friend. 
While  hovering  in  the  air  she  sang  two  verses  sweetly.  Then  other 
spirit  forms  appeared  (the  faces  not  recognized)  and  joined  in  the  refrain. 
I  had  never  heard  the  words  or  the  music  before ;  and  I  regret  that  I  can¬ 
not  recall  the  words.  They  were  very  beautiful  and  so  was  the  melody. 
When  the  music  ceased,  the  bright  cloud  and  the  celestial  visitors  disap¬ 
peared  and  my  room  was  dark  again.  I  arose  immediately,  lighted  a  lamp, 
looked  at  my  watch  and  made  a  record  of  the  incident.  The  time  of  the 
vision  was  12.30  on  Sunday  morning. 

“  Sincerely  yours, 

“  A.  B.  Weymouth.” 

Mr.  Albert  J.  Edmunds,  librarian  of  the  Pennsylvania  Historical 
Society,  reports  a  case  in  fuller  detail  than  that  given  in  the  report 
published  by  the  English  Society,  and  again  by  Mr.  Myers  in  his 
great  work,  “  Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death.” 
We  shall  have  to  abbreviate  it,  though  it  is  published  in  detail  in 
the  “  Journal,”  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychic  Research 
(Volume  VI,  pp.  439-448) .  The  man  who  saw  the  apparition  was 
well  known  to  Mr.  Myers,  who  took  down  the  statement  from  this 
man  himself. 


i6o  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


“  In  1880  I  succeeded  a  Mr.  Q.  as  librarian  of  the  X  Library.  I  had 
never  seen  Mr.  Q.  nor  any  photograph  nor  likeness  of  him,  when  the 
following  incidents  occurred.  I  may,  of  course,  have  heard  the  library 
assistants  describe  his  appearance,  though  I  have  no  recollection  of  this. 
I  was  sitting  alone  in  the  library  one  evening  late  in  March,  1884,  finishing 
some  work  after  hours,  when  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  I  should 
miss  the  last  train  to  H.,  where  I  was  then  living,  if  I  did  not  make  haste. 
It  was  then  10:55,  and  the  last  train  left  X.  at  11:05.  I  gathered  up 
some  books  in  one  hand,  took  the  lamp  in  the  other,  and  prepared  to  leave 
the  librarian’s  room,  which  communicated  by  a  passage  with  the  main 
room  of  the  library.  As  my  lamp  illuminated  this  passage,  I  saw  ap¬ 
parently  at  the  further  end  of  it  a  man’s  face.  I  instantly  thought  a  thief 
had  got  into  the  library.  This  was  by  no  means  impossible,  and  the  prob¬ 
ability  of  it  had  occurred  to  me  before.  I  turned  back  into  my  room,  put 
down  the  books  and  took  a  revolver  from  the  safe,  and,  holding  the  lamp 
cautiously  behind  me,  I  made  my  way  along  the  passage  —  which  had  a 
corner  behind  which  I  thought  my  thief  might  be  lying  in  wait  —  into  the 
main  room.  Here  I  saw  no  one,  but  the  room  was  large  and  encumbered 
with  bookcases.  I  called  out  loudly  several  times  to  the  intruder  to  show 
himself,  more  with  the  hope  of  attracting  a  passing  policeman  than  of 
drawing  the  intruder.  Then  I  saw  a  face  looking  round  one  of  the 
bookcases.  I  say  looking  round,  but  it  had  an  odd  appearance  as  if  the 
body  were  in  the  bookcase,  as  the  face  came  so  closely  to  the  edge  and 
I  could  see  no  body.  The  face  was  pallid  and  hairless,  and  the  orbits  of 
the  eyes  were  very  deep.  I  advanced  towards  it,  and  as  I  did  so  I  saw 
an  old  man  with  high  shoulders  seem  to  rotate,  and  with  a  shuffling  gait 
walk  rather  quickly  from  the  bookcase  to  a  small  lavatory,  which  opened 
from  the  library  and  had  no  other  access.  I  heard  no  noise.  I  followed 
the  man  at  once  into  the  lavatory;  and  to  my  extreme  surprise  found  no 
one  there.  I  examined  the  window  (about  twelve  by  fourteen  inches), 
and  found  it  closed  and  fastened.  I  opened  it  and  looked  out.  It  opened 
into  a  well,  the  bottom  of  which,  ten  feet  below,  was  a  sky-light,  and  the 
top  open  to  the  sky  some  twenty  feet  above.  It  was  in  the  middle  of  the 
building  and  no  one  could  have  dropped  into  it  without  smashing  the  glass 
nor  climbed  out  of  it  without  a  ladder,  but  no  one  was  there.  Nor  had 
there  been  anything  like  time  for  a  man  to  get  out  of  the  window,  as  I 
followed  the  intruder  instantly.  Completely  mystified,  I  even  looked  into 
the  little  cupboard  under  the  fixed  basin.  There  was  nowhere  hiding  for 
a  child,  and  I  confess  I  began  to  experience  for  the  first  time  what  novelists 
describe  as  an  ‘  eerie  ’  feeling. 

“  I  left  the  library,  and  found  I  had  missed  my  train.  Next  morning  I 
mentioned  what  I  had  seen  to  a  local  clergyman  who,  on  hearing  my  de¬ 
scription,  said,  ‘  Why,  that ’s  old  Q  !  ’  Soon  after  I  saw  a  photograph  (from 
a  drawing)  of  Q.,  and  the  resemblance  was  certainly  striking.  Q.  had 
lost  all  his  hair,  eyebrows  and  all,  from  (I  believe)  a  gunpowder  accident. 
His  walk  was  a  peculiar,  rapid,  high-shouldered  shuffle. 

“  Later  inquiry  proved  he  had  died  at  about  the  time  of  year  at  which 
T  saw  the  figure.” 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS 


i6i 


Two  assistants  in  the  library  some  time  later  saw  a  spectral  light 
in  the  room  in  which  Mr.  Q.  used  to  sit  late  at  night  writing  articles. 
This  was  in  1884.  About  4  p.  m.,  April  i,  1885,  Mr.  J.,  one  of  the 
persons  who  had  seen  the  spectral  light,  was  sitting  at  the  head  of  a 
long  table,  and  asked  Mr.  Edmunds,  the  sponsor  for  this  story,  to 
stay  a  minute,  as  something  was  the  matter  with  the  table.  The  up¬ 
shot  of  the  matter  was,  that  Mr.  Edmunds,  after  proving  that  other 
conjectures  were  not  correct,  shouted  out  the  suspicion  that  it  had 
something  to  do  with  “  old  Q.”  What  they  had  heard  was  a  “  half¬ 
bell-like  vibration,  which  sounded  something  like  a  tuning  fork  when 
struck  and  held  to  the  ear.”  Just  as  Mr.  Edmunds  suggested  that 
it  had  something  to  do  with  “  old  Q.,”  Mr.  R.,  who  had  seen  the 
illuminated  room,  came  in.  “  He  was  the  only  member  of  the 
staff  that  had  worked  under  0.”  The  three  men  put  their  fingers 
lightly  on  the  table,  and,  as  soon  as  Mr.  R.  touched  the  table,  the 
sound  came  ringing  out  of  his  sleeve.  Two  of  the  party  rushed 
to  R.  and  looked  into  his  sleeve,  but  found  nothing  there.  Re¬ 
calling  that  such  phenomena  sometimes  occurred  on  the  anniversa¬ 
ries  of  deaths  they  decided  to  find  out  when  Mr.  O.  had  died.  A 
messenger  was  dispatched  to  some  one  who  knew  and  he  returned 
with  the  information  that  Mr.  Q.  had  died  on  the  first  of  April, 
1880,  between  four  and  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon. 

Mr.  Edmunds  then  asked  R.  whether,  when  O.  was  alive,  he 
was  accustomed  to  hear  in  this  library  any  sound  that  at  all  re¬ 
sembled  the  ringing;  he  replied  that  he  was.  E^pon  that  spot 
on  the  table  whence  the  sound  appeared  to  proceed  there  used  to 
stand  an  old  cracked  gong,  which  when  Q.  wanted  one  of  his  boys, 
he  used  to  strike;  it  sounded  like  the  vibration  which  the  three 
men  had  heard.  Thus,  on  the  fifth  anniversary',  to  the  very  hour, 
of  the  old  man’s  death,  a  phantasmal  bell  reminded  them  of  his 
presence. 

A  number  of  experiments  were  then  held,  and  the  alleged  Q. 
was  interrogated  with  some  success.  But  the  important  fact  is,  that 
a  series  of  shared  experiences  and  of  real  or  alleged  messages  came, 
strengthening  the  significance  of  the  first  apparition ;  it  is  only  the 
phantasmal  phenomena  that  are  important  in  this  connection. 

The  following  incident  has  a  romantic  and  perhaps  pathetic  in- 


i62  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


terest.  It  was  in  the  collection  of  Dr.  Hodgson,  which  came  to  me 
after  his  death ;  and,  as  I  knew  the  person  who  had  reported  it, 
I  took  the  pains  to  have  it  fully  confirmed.  It  was  written  out  by 
the  lady  herself  and  reported  to  Dr.  Hodgson  in  1904.  Mrs. 
Howell  did  not  date  her  account. 

“  In  the  year  1865  I  had  a  lover  by  the  name  of  John  A.  Broadhead. 
Owing  to  several  circumstances  I  was  obliged  to  give  him  up,  although  I 
was  deeply  attached  to  him.  When  he  found  that  he  could  not  marry 
me,  he  left  the  town  of  Mount  Morris,  where  I  lived,  but  before  he  left 
he  said  to  me :  ‘  Mary,  I  think  this  separation  will  kill  me,  but  if  I  die 

and  a  spirit  can  come  back  to  earth,  I  will  come  to  you.’ 

“  I  replied,  ‘  Oh,  no,  don’t ;  for  that  would  frighten  me  dreadfully.’ 

‘  No,  it  w'ould  not,’  he  answered,  ‘  for  I  should  come  so  calmly  that  you 

would  not  be  at  all  afraid.’ 

“  In  1868  I  married  George  R.  Howell,  a  Presbyterian  minister  who 
knew  all  about  my  affection  for  John  Broadhead.  In  April,  1871,  I  was 
visiting  my  old  home  with  my  husband  and  baby  boy.  About  one  o’clock 
one  Sunday  afternoon  (I  think  it  was  April  12)  I  sat  in  the  parlor  of  my 
father’s  house,  my  baby  in  my  arms,  on  the  long  old  fashioned  sofa  on 
which  I  had  so  often  sat  with  my  old  lover.  My  husband  sat  across  the 
room  with  his  back  to  me,  reading.  The  sofa  was  unusually  long  and  I 
sat  at  the  end  of  it  near  a  door  opening  into  the  hall. 

“  Suddenly  I  felt  a  pressure  against  my  knee  and  limb  as  though  some 

one  had  come  very  close  to  me,  and  I  looked  up  e.Kpecting  to  see  one 

of  my  brothers,  but  to  my  great  surprise  saw  my  old  lover,  John  Broad¬ 
head,  standing  there  beside  me.  I  felt  greatly  distressed,  for  he  lived  in 
a  distant  city.  I  had  not  seen  him  since  1865,  and  I  thought  it  an  unwar¬ 
rantable  intrusion  that  he  should  enter  my  father’s  house  thus  unan¬ 
nounced.  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  he  was  not  alive.  I  noticed 
every  detail  of  his  dress  and  can  even  now  distinctly  remember  the 
black  and  white  necktie  which  he  wore.  Before  I  had  a  chance  to  speak 
he  raised  his  right  hand  and  said,  speaking  very  slowly  and  gently :  ‘  Be 

very  calm,  Mary.  I  am  what  they  call  dead.  I  died  in  the  West  three 
weeks  ago  to-day.’  Then,  lifting  his  left  hand,  he  pointed  to  a  newspaper 
which  lay  at  the  other  end  of  the  sofa  about  three  feet  away  from  me  and 
said:  ‘You  will  find  my  death  in  that  paper.’  Then  without  moving  a 
muscle  he  vanished  while  I  gazed  at  him. 

“  I  was  not  at  all  afraid,  but  felt  completely  overcome  by  the  shock  of 
suddenly  learning  that  he  was  dead,  for,  much  as  I  loved  my  husband, 
I  had  never  gotten  over  my  old  feeling  for  John  Broadhead:  and  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  baby  in  my  arms  I  think  I  would  have  fainted  away.  As 
it  was,  I  could  not  speak  or  call  my  husband,  but  I  managed  to  hitch  along 
the  sofa  till  I  could  reach  the  paper  to  which  he  had  pointed.  This 
turned  out  to  be  a  copy  of  the  New  York  ‘  Times  ’  that  had  never  been 
taken  out  of  the  wrapper  in  w'hich  it  had  come  through  the  mails.  I  tore 
it  open  and  there,  among  the  death  notices,  I  found  this  paragraph : 


SPONTANEOUS  INCIDENTS  163 

“'Died  in  Burlington,  Iowa,  March  22,  1871,  John  A.  Broadhead  of  this 
city  in  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  age.’ 

“  Mary  Seymour  Howell.” 

It  is  certain  that  these  phantasms  of  the  dead  cannot  be  ex- 
^lained,  by,_  telepathy  between  living  persons,  except  by  proving  an 
extension  of  thought-transference  that  has  never  been  justified  by 
any  facts  whatever.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  out  of  the  twelve 
cases  of  compact  before  death,  three  fulfilled  their  pledge  before 
they  died !  They  were  very  ill,  near  death,  when  they  appeared  to 
the  other  party  to  the  promise,  but  recovered  health,  some  of  them 
still  living  when  the  facts  were  reported.  This  circumstance 
strongly  supports  the  application  of  telepathy ;  and  the  scientific  men 
who  had  to  consider  them  were  entirely  right  to  pause  before  accept¬ 
ing  a  spiritistic  interpretation  of  phantasms  of  the  dying.  The  facts 
made  it  necessary,  if  phantasms  of  any  kind  were  to  be  regarded 
as  testimony  of  survival,  that  they  should  be  of  the  type  to  which 
no  proved  telepathy  could  apply.  The  present  instances  seem  to  be 
illustrations  of  the  desired  kind.  If  telepathy  applies  to  them  at  all,  ] 
it  will  be  that  form  of  it  which  is  not  an  alternative  theory  to  i 
belief  in  spirits,  but  the  name  of  a  process  of  communication  which 
will  apply  alike  to  the  agency  of  the  dead  and  of  the  living.  It  ! 
is  probable  that  the  same  process  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  phantasms  ; 
and  that  the  differences  lie  only  in  the  agents.  But  the  main  point  ; 
here  is  that  the  phantasms  of  the  dead  show  no  traces  of  being  in¬ 
itiated  or  instigated  by  the  living.  I  have  chosen  for  the  most  part 
those  which  have  a  teleological  aspect;  and  teleology  is  not  sug¬ 
gested  by  any  known  telepathy. 

Such  phenomena,  however,  can  never  constitute  the  scientific 
proof  for  survival  that  the  experimental  investigator  will  require. 

It  is  conceivable  that  they  might  be  accumulated  until  they  did  es¬ 
tablish  the  probabilities  so  overwhelmingly  that  experiment  would 
not  seem  imperative.  But  always  experimental  proof  is  more  sat¬ 
isfactory  than  spontaneous  phenomena.  The  spontaneous  phenom¬ 
ena  suggest  the  problem  and  go  far  toward  making  the  conclusion 
reasonable,  though  we  may  feel  some  hesitation  in  each  case  about 
accepting  their  evidential  character.  They  often  contain  features 
that  associate  them  psychologically  with  the  phenomena  obtained 


i64  contact  with  I’HE  OTHER  WORLD 

through  mediumistic  sources.  We  cannot  dwell  on  this  circum¬ 
stance.  We  only  remark  it  as  an  additional  characteristic  that  tends 
to  support  the  genuineness  and  significance  of  the  facts. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


Experiment  is  always  the  most  important  resource  of 
science  when  it  wants  to  obtain  assurance  on  any  point. 
Spontaneous  phenomena  are  exposed  to  unexpected  objec¬ 
tions,  often  when  we  feel  most  sure  about  them,  while  the  fear  that 
malobservation  may  have  vitiated  some  conclusions  keeps  the  judg¬ 
ment  in  suspense,  until  experiment,  in  which  we  can  determine  condi¬ 
tions,  has  supplied  us  with  the  evidential  desideratum.  The 
phenomena  of  psychic  research,  which  are  sporadic  even  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances  and  more  so  under  test  conditions, 
offer  special  difficulties  in  the  way  of  either  their  reproduction  or 
discovery  under  evidential  conditions.  Whatever  the  difficulties, 
however,  science  insists  on  experimental  production  of  the  phenom¬ 
ena  for  better  observation  and  security  as  to  their  genuineness  and 
significance. 

For  some  years  experimental  results  have  been  obtained  by  in¬ 
vestigators  all  over  the  world.  There  is  to-day  such  a  mass  of 
well-authenticated  facts  affording  a  selection  of  incidents  having 
the  desired  evidential  value,  as  to  make  any  other  than  the  spiritistic 
hypothesis  exceedingly  improbable.  Facts  intelligently  selected 
with  reference  to  proving  the  personal  identity  of  the  deceased  are 
not  of  the  kind  exhibited  in  telepathy.  They  are  usually  such  as 
would  most  naturally  express  the  mind  of  the  alleged  communicator, 
and,  with  various  other  characteristics  of  the  phenomena  them¬ 
selves,  they  so  commend  themselves  to  a  spiritistic  theory,  that  no 
other  view  of  them  can  be  rational. 

In  such  a  summary  of  the  facts  as  I  give  I  cannot  be  expected 
to  tell  all  the  circumstances  which  exclude  normal  knowledge  as 
the  source  of  the  messages.  The  detailed  records  do  this  quite 
fully.  The  reader  will  have  to  be  content  with  the  general  state- 
n'.ent  that  no  incident  which  has  not  stood  that  test  has  been  se- 

165 


i66  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


lected  and  that  I  have  endeavored  to  eliminate  all  bias  in  recording 
and  selecting  the  facts  here  used.  I  am  primarily  interested  in 
their  impcu-tance  for  establishing  supernormal  knowledge  and  the 
personal  identity  of  the  communicator.  In  some  cases  the  very 
description  of  the  facts  will  be  a  half-guarantee  of  genuineness, 
and  often  very  little  will  have  to  be  said  to  protect  them  against 
skepticism. 

^he  first  incident  that  I  select  is  strong  and  complicated.  It  in¬ 
volves  what  is  called  a  “  cross-correspondence.”  There  is  a  tech¬ 
nical  distinction  between  “  cross-correspondence  ”  and  ”  cross-ref¬ 
erence.”  The  former  implies  the  latter,  but  “  cross-correspondence” 
involves  the  completion  through  a  second  psychic  of  a  message 
obtained  through  another,  or  an  increment  that  is  relevant  and  not 
given  at  the  first  station.  “  Cross-reference  ”  need  be  no  more 
than  the  delivery  of  the  same  message  from  two  independent 
sources.  For  our  purposes  there  need  be  little  difference  between 
them,  though  the  “  cross-correspondence  ”  appears  to  many  people 
to  be  the  more  cogent. 

The  incident  is  not  fully  reported  in  the  paper  by  Mrs.  Verrall 
in  the  ”  Proceedings  ”  of  the  English  Society,  and  hence  for  the 
part  which  pertains  to  what  Dr.  Hodgson  did  I  shall  have  to  depend 
on  my  memory.  He  told  me  that,  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper,  in 
which  Mr.  Myers  purported  to  communicate,  Mr.  Myers  referred 
to  Miss  Helen  Verrall  as  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Verrall  and  re¬ 
marked  that  she  was  “  a  better  light  than  the  mother,”  adding 
that  he  had  got  her  to  see  a  vision  of  a  hand  and  a  book.  Dr. 
Hodgson,  seeing  an  opportunity  to  get  a  cross-reference,  and  know¬ 
ing  nothing  about  the  daughter,  asked  the  communicator  to  make 
her  see  a  hand  and  a  spear,  varying  the  picture  as  little  as  possible. 
Rector,  the  control,  to  whom  the  request  was  given,  did  not  under¬ 
stand  the  word  “  spear  ”  and  interpreted  it  as  “  sphere.”  Dr. 
Hodgson  corrected  it  and  spelled  the  word  “  spear  ”  and  then 
Rector  caught  it,  repeating  the  word  “  spear,”  and  asking  Dr. 
Hodgson  if  he  meant  some  flying  weapon.  Dr.  Hodgson  said  that 
he  did,  and  there  the  matter  stood,  so  far  as  events  in  Boston  were 
concerned.  This  was  on  January  28,  1901.  When  he  made  in¬ 
quiries  later  as  to  what  had  happened  in  England,  he  ascertained 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


167 

that  the  daughter,  Miss  Helen  Verrall,  had  received  no  vision  of 
either  a  hand  and  book  or  a  hand  and  spear.  But  Mrs.  Verrall’s 
record  of  automatic  v^^riting  on  January  31,  1902,  three  days  after 
Dr.  Hodgson  had  sent  the  message,  contained  the  following  script 
in  Latin  and  Greek,  the  first  word  being  a  mongrel  of  neither 
language. 

“  Panopticon  (T<f>aLpd^  dTivdkXu  mvSeypa  pvariKov.  tI  ovk  tStSw? ; 
volatile  ferrum  —  pro  telo  impinget.” 

On  February  4,  the  communicator  through  Mrs.  Piper  said  that 
he  had  succeeded  in  getting  “  Sphear  ”  through  to  the  daughter 
Helen.  This  statement  is  not  correct;  but  it  is  apparent  that  Mrs. 
Verrall  got  the  exact  idea,  except  for  the  hand,  in  the  words  ‘'  vola¬ 
tile  ferrum  —  pro  telo,”  with  the  word  (r<f>aipd<:,  which  is  the  Greek 
for  “  sphere,”  representing  the  misunderstanding  in  Boston  of  the 
word  “  spear,”  which  Dr.  Hodgson  had  given  and  which  had  been 
mistaken  for  “  sphere.” 

The  significant  point  here  is,  that  what  was  started  in  English 
was  translated  into  Greek  and  Latin  when  delivered  in  England, 
with  the  same  mistake  there  that  had  been  made  in  Boston.  Vola¬ 
tile  ferrum  is  the  Latin  for  “  flying  iron,”  or  arrow,  and  telum 
(ablative  telo)  is  the  Latin  for  javelin  or  spear.  The  remainder 
of  the  message  shows  the  filling  that  comes  through  the  transmitter 
or  the  subconscious  of  Mrs.  Verrall.  The  chief  points  lie  in  the 
coincidences  between  the  words  ”  spear  ”  and  “  sphere  ”  at  one 
end  of  the  line  and  volatile  ferrum  —  pro  telo  and  <T<paipd<:  at  the 
other  end.  No  serious  difficulty  is  met  in  the  mistake  about 
“  sphear  ”  in  the  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper  on  February  4th.  That 
is  a  natural  error  on  the  part  of  the  subconscious,  which  had  started 
with  the  impression  that  Miss  Verrall  was  the  subject  of  the  ex¬ 
periment.  In  fact,  this  mistake  and  that  of  transforming  the  word 
“  spear  ”  into  ”  sphere  ”  and  putting  it  in  Greek  in  England  is  in 
favor  of  a  spiritistic  interpretation  of  the  coincidences,  as  it  would 
be  natural  in  the  complicated  circumstances  under  which  such  a 
message  has  to  be  transmitted.  But  the  reader  can  judge  of  all 
this  for  himself. 

A  similar  mistake  in  regard  to  the  personality  through  whom  a 
message  was  intended  to  be  delivered  was  made  in  the  St.  Paul 


i68  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

cross-correspondence.  Dr.  Hodgson  purported  to  be  communicat- 
ing  through  Mrs.  Piper  in  England  when  Sir  Oliver  J.  Lodge  was 
present  as  sitter.  It  was  the  communicator,  Dr.  Hodgson,  that 
proposed  the  name  of  St.  Paid  as  an  experiment,  saying  that  he 
would  go  to  Mrs.  Holland  and  deliver  this  message  at  once. 

This  was  on  November  15,  1906.  But  no  reference  to  St.  Paul 
appeared  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Holland.  By  this  time,  however. 
Miss  Helen  Verrall,  like  her  mother,  was  doing  automatic  writing 
in  foreign  languages.  On  January  12,  Miss  Verrall  received  the 
following  in  her  automatic  writing.  It  began  in  Latin  and  ended 
with  the  statement  wholly  unconnected  with  it;  “  The  name  is  not 
right,  robbing  Peter  to  pay  Paul?  sanctus  nomine  quod  efficit  nil 
continens  petatur  subveniet.” 

There  is  the  mention  of  the  name  St.  Paul  here  to  suggest  the 
possibilities,  but  it  does  not  prove  the  int  ention.  But,  on  Feb¬ 
ruary  26,  the  following  came,  making  rather  evident  the  intention 
of  the  reference.  Readers  should  notice  how  it  is  buried  in  a  mass 
of  apparently  irrelevant  matter.  The  first  passage  shows  that  a 
peculiar  device  had  to  be  adopted  to  get  the  name  through,  if  it 
refers  to  the  cross-reference  at  all,  and  I  have  several  times  ob¬ 
served  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth  a  similar  circuitous  method. 
Here  is  the  second  passage. 

“  A  tangle  of  flowers  with  green  grass  between  wall  flowers, 
pansies,  which  such  hurry.  Did  you  know  that  the  second  way 
was  shorter.  You  have  not  understood  about  Paul.  Ask  Lodge. 
Quibus  eruditis  advocatis  rem  explicabis  non  nisi  ad  unam  norman 
refers  hoc  satis  alia  vana.  A  tower  of  ancient  masonry  with  bat¬ 
tlements.” 

The  intention  here  is  unmistakable,  especially  since  the  reference 
has  no  logical  connection  with  its  environment,  save  as  this  environ¬ 
ment  is  explanatory.  In  connection  with  the  reference  to  St.  Paul 
on  January  12,  Mr.  Piddington,  who  writes  the  article,  translates 
the  Latin  to  mean:  “  Holy  in  name  (i.  e.  with  the  title  of  saint) 
what  she  (or  he)  is  doing  is  of  no  use  (i.  e.  by  itself).  Let  the 
point  (continens)  be  looked  for;  it  will  help.”  The  Latin  words 
of  February  26  he  translates  to  mean  as  follows:  “  By  calling  to 
your  aid  what  learned  men  will  you  explain  the  matter  ?  (You.  will 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  169 

not  explain  it)  unless  you  refer  to  one  standard.  This  is  enough; 
more  is  useless.” 

Mr.  Piddington  adds  that  the  names  Peter  and  Paul  do  not  occur 
elsewhere  in  the  automatic  writing  of  Miss  Verrall,  so  that  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  cross-reference  is  intentional. 

As  stated  above,  the  writing  of  Mrs.  Holland  did  not  contain 
the  name  St.  Paul,  but  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  notes  that,  on  December 
31,  there  is  an  approach  to  the  subject,  which  is  thought  to  sug¬ 
gest  an  explanation  of  the  words  in  Miss  Verrall’s  script.  The 
statement  in  the  writing  of  Mrs.  Holland  was;  “  II  Peter  i:  15. 
This  witness  is  true.  It  is  now  time  that  the  shadow  should  be 
lifted  from  your  spirit  —  ‘Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work.’ 
‘  This  is  a  faithful  saying.’  ” 

The  verse  II  Peter  i:  15  is:  “Moreover  I  will  endeavor  that 
ye  may  be  able  after  my  decease  to  have  these  things  always  in  re¬ 
membrance.”  It  is  quite  apparent  that  this  verse  is  not  relevant  to 
the  name  of  St.  Paul,  though  the  references  and  quotations  follow¬ 
ing  it  are  more  or  less  relevant.  This  fact  was  noted  by  Mr.  Pid¬ 
dington  and  the  relevance  of  the  remainder  of  the  statements.  But 
Rev.  Dr.  Walter  F.  Prince,  in  a  review  of  the  whole  cross-correspon¬ 
dence  in  connection  with  the  name  of  St.  Paul,  calls  attention  to  a 
possible  mistake  in  the  reference  to  the  Epistle  of  Peter  by  showing 
that,  if  it  had  been  “  II  Peter  iii  ;  15  ”  the  reference  would  have  been 
extraordinarily  apt.  He  assumes  that  the  mistake  was  “  one  ”  for 
“  three,”  or  “  first  ”  for  “  third,”  assuming  an  auditory  transmis¬ 
sion.  The  verse  reads :  “  And  account  that  the  longsufifering  of 

our  Lord  is  salvation ;  even  as  our  beloved  brother  Paul,  according 
to  the  wisdom  given  unto  him,  has  written  unto  you.”  Dr.  Prince 
notes  that  this  reference  to  St.  Paul  is  not  only  direct,  but  also 
that  it  is  “  the  one  verse  in  the  midst  of  166  Petrine  verses,  and 
that  it  is  likewise  the  only  verse  mentioning  him  out  of  734  which 
make  up  the  body  of  the  non-Pauline  epistles.”  The  possible  sig¬ 
nificance  of  this  fact  is  apparent  when  we  note  that  the  other  sev¬ 
eral  passages  referred  to  have  special  relevance  to  St.  Paul.  The  ex¬ 
pression,  “  This  witness  is  true,”  Dr.  Prince  notes,  is  in  St.  Paul’s 
Epistle  to  Titus,  1:13,  though  similar  expressions  are  found  in  St. 
John.  “  This  is  a  faithful  saying  ”  occurs  at  least  three  times  in  St. 


170  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Paul’s  Epistles,  according  to  Dr.  Prince,  and  he  adds  a  fourth  in¬ 
stance.  He  also  explains  how  the  other  two  statements  are  rem¬ 
iniscent  of  St.  Paul,  but  we  need  not  emphasize  the  fact  beyond 
recording  Dr.  Prince’s  opinion.  As  the  main  coincidence  is  clear, 
we  need  not  stress  the  more  enigmatical  coincidences.  It  is  only 
our  knowledge  that  such  circuitous  methods  are  often  employed  that 
allows  or  requires  us  to  tolerate  or  admit  the  cogency  of  the  con¬ 
nection.  The  instance  is  the  least  cogent  of  the  cross-correspond¬ 
ences. 

Another  instance  may  be  briefly  cited.  At  a  sitting  on  January 
i6,  1907,  with  Mrs.  Piper,  Mr.  Piddington  asked  the  communicator, 
who  happened  to  be  Mr.  Myers,  to  attach  a  sign  to  any  message  he 
got  through  as  a  cross-correspondence,  and  suggested  that  this  sign 
be  something  like  a  circle  and  a  triangle.  “  A  circle  and  a  triangle 
inside  it  appeared  in  the  script  of  Mrs.  Verrall  at  the  foot  of  a  re¬ 
markable  communication  embodying  a  successful  cross-correspond¬ 
ence  ”  on  January  28,  1907,  just  twelve  days  later  than  the  date  of 
Mr.  Piddington's  suggestion.  As  he  had  mentioned  Mrs.  Verrall 
and  Mrs.  Holland  as  subjects  for  the  experiment,  this  coincidence 
has  much  value,  especially  as  showing  that  the  circle  and  the  triangle 
were  signs  of  a  cross-correspondence  message.  The  automatic 
writing  of  Mrs.  Holland  did  not  show  any  circle  and  triangle  in  it; 
but  on  May  8,  1907,  it  did  show  geometrical  figures,  among  which 
were  a  circle  and  a  triangle,  though  the  triangle  was  not  in  the  circle. 
Mrs.  Piper  was  in  London,  Mrs.  Verrall  in  Cambridge,  and  Mrs. 
Holland  in  India. 

This  instance,  however,  as  we  have  noted,  is  connected  with  the 
next,  which  is  so  complex  that  its  meaning  is  unmistakable  to  all 
careful  readers.  It  is  called  the  “  Hope,  Star  and  Browning  ”  in¬ 
cident.  It  will  be  apparent  also  that  more  than  one  personality  is 
probably  concerned  in  it.  On  February  ii,  1907,  came  the  fol¬ 
lowing  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper,  Mr.  Piddington  being  the  sitter 
and  Mr.  Myers  the  supposed  communicator. 

Did  she  [Mrs.  Verrall]  receive  the  word  “evangelical”? 

(“  Evangelical  ”  ?) 

Yes. 

(I  don’t  know,  but  I  will  inquire.) 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


171 


I  referred  also  to  Browning  again. 

(Do  you  remember  what  your  exact  reference  to  Browning  was?) 

I  referred  to  Hope  and  Browning.  I  also  said  “  star.”  [Interruption.] 

(Now,  Myers,  I  must  say  good-by,  as  the  friend  is  here.) 

Meanwhile  look  out  for  “  Hope,”  “  Star,”  and  “  Browning.” 

On  returning  from  the  sitting,  Mr.  Piddington  examined  the  rec¬ 
ord  of  Mrs.  Verrall  and  found  there  on  an  earlier  date,  January  28, 
1907,  evidence  of  allusion  to  this  cross-correspondence.  On  the 
next  day,  February  12,  he  asked  Mr.  Myers,  the  communicator, 
about  the  word  “  evangelical,”  as  it  had  no  meaning  to  him.  Mr. 
Myers  explained,  without  any  suggestion  from  Mr.  Piddington. 
that  it  was  an  attempt  to  give  the  name,  Evelyn  Hope. 

He  then  quotes  from  the  two  records  of  January  23  and  28, 
1907,  to  show  the  reference  to  “  Hope,  Star  and  Browning,” 
though  in  an  indirect  and  enigmatical  form,  showing  evidence  of  the 
presence  and  influence  of  Dr.  Hodgson.  I  quote  first  the  record 
of  January  23,  1907. 

“  Justice  holds  the  scales.  That  gives  the  words,  but  an  anagram  would 
be  better.  Tell  him  that  — rats,  star,  tars  and  so  on.  Try  this.  It  has 
been  tried  before.  RTATS,  rearrange  these  five  letters,  or  again  tears, 
stare:  seam,  same,  and  so  on.  Skeat,  takes,  Kate’s,  Keats,  stake, 
steak.  But  the  letters  you  would  give  to-night  are  not  so  many  —  only 
three  —  a  s  t.” 

The  explanation  of  these  anagrams  will  follow  the  next  quota¬ 
tion,  as  a  similar  process  is  involved  in  that  record.  It  is  the  sit¬ 
ting  of  January  28,  1907. 

“Aster  [star],  repas  [wonder  or  sign].  The  world’s  wonder,  and  all 
a  wonder  and  a  wild  desire  —  A  WINGED  DESIRE  {nronTtpo's  epw? 
[winged  love]. 

“  Then  there  is  Blake  and  mocked  my  loss  of  liberty.  But  it  is  all  the 
same  thing  —  the  winged  desire,  Ipw?  ttoOuvo’;  [passion]  the  hope  that 
leaves  Jthe  earth  for  the  sky  —  Abt  Vogler  for  earth,  too  hard,  that  found 
itself  or  lost  itself  —  in  the  sky.  On  the  earth  the  broken  sounds,  threads, 
in  the  sky  the  perfect  arc.  The  C  major  of  this  life.  But  your  recollec¬ 
tion  is  at  fault.” 

[Then  follows  an  arc  with  the  triangle  in  it,  and  then  a  full  circle  with 
the  triangle  in  it.] 

Both  these  passages  are  in  the  records  of  Mrs.  Verrall.  The  indi- 


172  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

cation  that  Browning  is  meant  lies  in  the  allusion  to  Abt  Vogler. 
Mrs.  Verrall  recognized  this  allusion,  but  did  not  know  what  it 
meant,  not  knowing  that  any  cross-correspondence  had  been  at¬ 
tempted.  Note  that  this  occurred  on  January  23,  nineteen  days 
before  the  matter  was  alluded  to  through  Mrs.  Piper  on  February 
II.  The  passage  from  Browning  is  not  correctly  quoted  in  the 
message.  The  word  “  hope  ”  is  in  it,  but  instead  the  word  “  pas¬ 
sion  ”  is  in  Browning.  This  idea  is  recognized  in  the  Greek  word 
for  “  love  ”  or  the  god  of  love.  The  line  in  Browning  is ;  “  The 

passion  that  left  the  ground  to  lose  itself  in  the  sky.”  Mrs.  Ver¬ 
rall  queried  if  WoVrejoo?  was  an  attempt  at  “  bird,”  as  it  means 
“  winged,”  and  did  not  remark  what  Mr.  Piddington  notes,  namely, 
that  ‘  bird  ’  is  suggested  by  the  line  in  Browning,  which  runs,  “  O 
lyric  Love,  half  angel  and  half  bird,”  This  line  in  Browning  pre¬ 
cedes  the  words  in  Mrs.  Verrall’s  record,  namely,  “  And  all  a 
wonder  and  a  wild  desire.”  Thus  the  passage  is  packed  with 
Browning,  and  the  word  “  hope  ”  is  found  in  one  of  the  state¬ 
ments. 

The  anagrams  contain  a  remarkable  intimation  that  Dr.  Hodgson 
was  behind  a  part  of  the  cross-correspondence.  They  had  no  mean¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Piddington,  but  finally  he  remembered  having  seen 
something  of  the  kind  among  the  papers  of  Dr.  Hodgson  when  he 
was  in  America  settling  the  affairs  of  the  American  Branch.  He 
found  on  investigation  that  he  had  kept  a  paper  on  which  several 
of  these  very  anagrams  were  made  by  Dr.  Hodgson  himself  while 
living.  Several  papers  containing  them  had  been  destroyed,  but 
he  had  happened  to  keep  one  of  them.  On  it  is  the  list  of  words ; 
“  Star,  tars,  rats,  arts,  tras.”  Besides  it  contains  “  tears  ”  and 
“  stare,”  and  the  word  “  aster,”  which  is  the  English  for  a  species 
of  flower,  and  the  Greek  word  for  “  star,”  which  comes  out  through 
Mrs.  Verrall,  is  an  anagram  play  in  the  Greek  on  the  word  for 
wonder  or  sign,  serving  at  the  same  time  for  a  transition  to  Brown¬ 
ing.  It  throws  much  light  on  the  process  and  the  subliminal  action 
of  the  medium’s  mind. 

But  the  cross-correspondence  did  not  stop  here.  Miss  Verrall 
had  not  been  told  what  was  happening.  One  day  she  got  in  her 
automatic  writing  the  drawing  of  a  star  with  the, following: 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


173 


“  That  was  the  sign  she  will  understand  when  she  sees  it.  diapason,  8ia 
Ttaawv  pvdfios  [rhythm  through  it  all].  No  arts  avail.  The  heavenly 
harmony  ws  OTiXaroiv  [as  Plato  says].  The  mystic  three  and  a  star 
above  it  all.  rats  everywhere  in  Hamelin  town.  Now  do  you  understand. 
Henry.” 

^  It  was  Browning  who  wrote  the  “  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,”  and 
in  the  passage  quoted  there  is  not  only  a  definite  allusion  to  “  star,” 
but  there  is  also  the  allusion  to  “  rats  ”  and  “  arts,”  two  words  in 
the  anagrams  mentioned  through  Mrs.  Verrall.  For  brevity’s  sake 
I  omitted  one  statement  in  the  quotation  which,  in  Greek  as  it  was 
given,  means  “  a  foreign  physician  ” ;  the  “  Pied  Piper  ”  cured 
Hamelin  of  its  plague  of  rats.  The  same  circuitous  reference  to 
Browning,  apparent  in  the  automatic  writing  of  Mrs.  Verrall,  ap¬ 
pears  here.  We  have  then  three  psychics  alluding  to  the  same 
complex  group  of  ideas;  the  circumstances  not  only  prove  the  cross¬ 
correspondence,  but  also  show  very  clearly  the  difficulties  in  com¬ 
municating. 

The  evidence  for  cross-correspondence  is  not  the  best.  If  it 
were  as  direct  and  meaningful  as  desired,  there  could  be  no  skep¬ 
ticism  based  on  the  ground  that  the  connections  are  fantastic  and 
circuitous,  or  dependent  on  the  interpretation  of  the  reader.  But, 
while  some  concession  must  be  made  to  critical  readers,  the  difficulty 
is  not  very  apparent  in  the  next  instance,  which  is  called  that  of 
“  Crossing  the  Bar.”  It  requires  some  preliminary  explanation. 

Mrs.  Verrall  had  been  struck  with  some  indication  of  the  per¬ 
sonality  communicating  in  the  messages  of  Mrs.  Piper;  and,  know¬ 
ing  that  her  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Myers  before  his  death 
precluded  trusting  her  own  messages  reflecting  his  personal  char¬ 
acteristics,  she  resolved  on  a  test  which  would  eliminate  the  subcon¬ 
scious  knowledge  of  Mrs.  Piper  and  perhaps  strengthen  the  evi¬ 
dence  for  the  presence  of  Mr.  Myers.  She  looked  about  for  some¬ 
thing  to  use  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper,  that  might  provoke  a 
significant  reaction  from  the  alleged  Myers  as  communicator.  She 
required  a  sentence  or  words  which  Mr.  Myers  would  naturally 
recognize  and  which  Mrs.  Piper  would  not  understand.  Finally 
she  hit  upon  a  few  words  from  a  passage  in  Plotinus,  used  as  a 
motto  to  a  poem  by  Mr.  Myers  himself.  The  words  were  koX 


174  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ovTos  oujoavos  aKvrjojv,  or,  Spelled  in  English,  kai  autos  ouranos 
akiimon,  meaning  “  the  very  heavens  calm.”  Mrs.  Piper  did  not 
know  Greek,  and  so  she  would  not  be  able  even  subconsciously  to 
know  the  meaning  of  the  terms  when  uttered  to  her  control  in  the 
trance.  Armed  with  these  Greek  words,  Mrs.  Verrall  went  to  Mrs. 
Piper  on  January  29,  1907,  and  gave  three  of  the  words  to  the  sup¬ 
posed  Myers,  omitting  the  first  of  the  four,  kai.  She  expected 
some  reference  to  the  following: 

1.  A  translation  into  English  of  the  three  words. 

2.  A  reference  to  Myers’s  poem  on  Tennyson. 

3.  A  reference  to  Plotinus  and  the  latter  part  of  “  Human  Per¬ 
sonality,”  the  title  of  Myers’s  great  work. 

On  January  30,  at  the  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper,  Mrs.  Verrall  re¬ 
ceived  an  allusion  to  a  ”  haven  of  rest,”  purporting  to  come  from 
Mr.  Myers;  and  it  was  thought  that  it  contained  a  remote  refer¬ 
ence  to  what  was  wanted.  But  this  is  only  conjectural,  as  it  may 
be  a  plainer  English  version  of  the  expression  “  celestial  halcyon 
days,”  another  cross-reference  having  some  associations  with  the 
present  subject.  Not  until  March  6,  were  distinct  traces  of  the 
translation  noticeable.  In  the  meantime,  Mrs.  Verrall’s  automatic 
writing  had  taken  up  the  subject  and  discoursed  about  it  in  a  re¬ 
markable  manner  with  results  that  seem  evidential  in  some  in¬ 
stances,  though  much  of  the  matter  is  exposed  to  the  suspicion  of 
being  subconscious  production.  The  details  would  make  too  long 
a  story  here.  But  the  messages  purporting  to  come  from  Mr. 
Myers  through  her  script  refer  to  Tennyson’s  “In  Memoriam  ” 
and  his  poem  on  Lucretius,  both  of  which  in  some  passages  have 
affinities  to  thoughts  in  Plotinus.  Though  Mrs.  Verrall  had  read 
Tennyson’s  “  In  Memoriam  ”  in  her  college  days,  she  had  no  suspi¬ 
cion  that  there  were  passages  in  it  referring  to  Plotinus,  until  she 
re-read  the  poem  in  order  to  discover  them.  Passages  from  Ten¬ 
nyson’s  “  Lucretius  ”  were  introduced  very  directly  into  the  auto¬ 
matic  script ;  they  were  almost  a  literal  translation  of  the  ideas  in 
the  three  Greek  words  she  had  given  Mr.  Myers  at  the  sitting  with 
Mrs.  Piper.  This  circumstance,  of  course,  is  not  evidential;  but 
these  very  ideas  came  back  through  Mrs.  Piper,  who  knew  nothing 
about  either  the  Greek  words  or  the  relation  of  “  In  Memoriam  ” 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


175 

and  “  Lucretius  ”  to  their  meaning.  These  records  extend  from 
February  12  to  March  ii,  while  the  communicator  was  silent  on 
the  matter  all  this  time,  in  so  far  as  Mrs.  Piper’s  communications 
were  concerned,  except  that  on  March  6  Mrs.  Piper’s  trance  per¬ 
sonalities  began  the  translation  and  the  system  of  pertinent  cross¬ 
correspondences.  I  quote  Mr.  Piddington.  He  alone  was  at  the 
sitting. 

“  On  March  6,  Myers,  in  the  course  of  announcing  various  cross-corre¬ 
spondences  which  he  claimed  to  have  transmitted  to  Mrs.  Verrall,  gave 
without  explanation  three  words,  ‘  Cloudless,  Sky,  Horizon,’  followed  by 
the  phrase :  ‘  a  cloudless  sky  beyond  the  horizon.’  In  the  waking  stage 
Mrs.  Piper  uttered  the  words :  ‘  moaning  at  the  bar  when  I  put  out  to  sea.’ 
A  little  later  she  pronounced  the  name  ‘  Arthur  Hallam  ’ ;  then  almost 
directly  said  it  agani :  ‘  Arthur  Hallam.  Good-by.  Margaret,’  Margaret 
being  Mrs.  Verrall’s  Christian  name.” 

The  mention  of  Arthur  Hallam,  the  subject  of  “  In  Memoriam,” 
was  very  pertinent  here.  Mr.  Piddington  adds  in  his  remarks ; 

“  Though  no  claim  was  made  to  have  given  a  translation  of  the  words 
of  the  test  question  in  the  phrase  ‘  cloudless  sky  beyond  the  horizon  ’  it 
would  be  difficult  to  suppose  that  chance  had  furnished  so  satisfactory  a 
paraphrase  as  this  of  auros  oitpayb^  aKv/xotv  (kai  autos  akumon)  ;  but 
preceded  as  the  phrase  was  by  references  to  Mrs.  Verrall  and  followed  by 
the  quotation  from  ‘  Crossing  the  Bar  ’  and  the  name  ‘  Arthur  Hallam,’ 
it  is  practically  impossible  to  attribute  its  appropriateness  to  chance. 
Moreover,  this  paraphrase  seems  to  indicate  knowledge  not  only  of  the 
meaning  of  the  three  words  of  the  test  question  but  also  of  their  original 
context.” 

Mr.  Piddington  then  quotes  the  whole  of  the  original  passage 
from  which  the  three  words  were  taken  and  show's  that  the  Greek 
word  for  “  air  ”  preceded  that  for  “  heaven  ”  and  that  the  latter 
meant  what  was  beyond  the  air;  as  we  in  English  often  use  “  sky  ” 
for  the  region  occupied  by  the  air,  the  phrase  “  beyond  the  sky  ” 
points  to  a  knowledge  of  the  whole  passage. 

At  this  time  Mrs.  Verrall  had  not  consciously  grasped  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  her  own  automatic  writing  in  connection  with  the  references 
to  “  Arthur  Hallam  ”  and  “  Crossing  the  Bar.”  It  was  March  12 
before  she  saw'  the  connection.  On  March  13,  at  a  sitting  with 
Mrs.  Piper  by  Mr.  Piddington,  Myers  communicating  drew  lines 
which  w'ere  said  to  represent  a  bar,  evidently  referring  to  Tenny- 


176  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

son's  poem  or  indicating  an  attempt  to  make  a  sign  at  the  end  of 
a  cross-correspondence.  But  nothing  more  of  importance  seems 
to  have  come  until  April  29,  when  Mrs.  Verrall  herself  was  present. 
At  this  sitting  the  only  item  of  interest  in  this  connection  was  a 
reference  to  “  azure  ”  and  “  blue  sea,”  perhaps  not  as  cogent  as 
may  be  desired,  but  apparent  to  careful  students  of  the  record.  No 
allusion  was  made  to  Plotinus  or  to  “  Human  Personality.”  On 
April  30,  however,  when  Miss  Johnson  was  present  at  a  sitting  with 
Mrs.  Piper,  Rector,  the  control,  said: 

“  I  have  seen  Mr.  Myers  and  he  gave  me  his  reply  to  your  Greek  words 
and  I  gave  them  to  the  other  lady  before  you  appeared.  Tell  her  to  speak 
them.  All  right.  Homer’s  ‘  Iliad.’  ” 

Later  in  the  sitting  Mrs.  Verrall  came  in;  she  was  given  the 
name  Socrates  and  was  told  that  it  reminded  the  communicator 
of  Homer.  At  first  Mrs.  Verrall  thought  the  allusion  to  Socrates 
and  Homer’s  “  Iliad  ”  was  nonsense.  “  But  later  in  the  day,”  says 
Mr.  Piddington,  “  a  dim  impression  came  to  Mrs.  Verrall,  after 
thinking  it  over,  that  in  the  second  volume  of  “  Human  person¬ 
ality,”  close  to  the  passage  about  the  vision  of  Plotinus  in  which 
occurs  the  translation  of  the  words  kai  autos  ouranos  akumon 
(Greek  letters  given  in  original)  was  an  allusion  to  the  famous 
vision  of  Socrates,  in  which  the  woman  of  Phthia  addressed  him  in 
a  line  from  the  ‘  Iliad.’  ”  An  unmistakable  allusion  in  Mrs.  Ver- 
rall’s  own  script  of  the  next  day.  May  i,  to  the  “eagle  soaring 
above  the  tomb  of  Plato  ”  —  a  phrase  descriptive  of  Plotinus, 
quoted  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  “  Human  Personality  ”  —  led  her 
to  investigate  further  with  the  following  results. 

“  In  the  last  two  chapters  of  ‘  Human  Personality,’  twice  and  twice  only, 
is  the  word  ‘  vision  ’  used ;  the  first  time,  of  the  vision  which  came  to  Soc¬ 
rates  in  the  prison  house,  when  the  ‘  fair  and  white-robed  woman  ’  had 
‘  given  to  Achilles’s  words  ’  —  ‘  On  the  third  day  hence  thou  comest  to 
Phthia’s  fertile  shore ’  —  ‘a  more  sacred  meaning ’ ;  and  the  second  time 
of  the  vision  of  Plotinus.” 

It  should  be  added  that  the  passage  is  translated  in  “  Human  Per¬ 
sonality,”  but  the  words  of  it  were  not  mentioned  in  the  book,  so 
that  any  supposed  reading  of  the  book  by  Mrs.  Piper  is  not  a  valid 
criticism.  But  one  more  message  was  required  to  complete  the  ref- 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  177 

gi-gfjQg  (Jgsircd  by  IVIrs.  Vcrrsll,  srid  thst  W3.s  the  ricirne  of  Plotinus. 
She  told  Mrs.  Sidgwick  and  Miss  Johnson  of  this  defect;  and,  just 
when  Mrs.  Sidgwick  intended  to  tell  the  trance  personality  at  her 
sitting  of  May  6  that  the  name  of  the  author  was  wanted,  Mr,  Myers, 
purporting  to  communicate,  said. 

“Will  you  say  to  Mrs.  Verrall  —  Plotinus.”  The  last  word  was  not  de¬ 
ciphered  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  and  was  thereupon  repeated  in  large  letters, 
PLOTINUS.  Mrs.  Sidgwick  then  asked:  “What  is  that?”  and  Myers 
replied:  “My  answer  to  autos  ouranos  akumcn.”  [^akumoii]. 

This  completes  the  data  necessary  to  clinch  the  cross-correspond¬ 
ence,  and,  whatever  readers  may  think  of  its  evidentiality,  it  bears 
unmistakable  indications  in  its  complications  and  indirections  of 
being  what  it  claims  to  be,  though  I  can  quite  understand  that  the 
incident  may  seem  inconclusive  to  those  who  assume  that  com¬ 
munication  with  the  dead  should  be  more  direct  and  obvious,  if  it 
is  to  be  convincing. 

The  next  instance  of  cross-correspondence  is  especially  inter¬ 
esting  because  it  involves  the  giving  of  the  contents  of  a  post¬ 
humous  letter  before  the  person  who  wrote  it  had  died.  By  a 
posthumous  letter  we  mean  one  written  by  a  living  person  and 
sealed,  so  that  no  living  person  normally  knows  the  contents;  the 
intention  is,  if  possible,  to  reveal  the  contents  after  death.  The 
contents  in  this  case  purported  to  be  given  by  Mr.  Myers  while  he 
made  an  experiment  in  cross-correspondence  with  the  contents. 
To  understand  the  significance  of  the  case,  we  should  know  some 
preliminary  facts. 

Mr.  Myers,  when  he  read  the  work  of  Stainton  Moses,  was  im¬ 
pressed  by  one  incident,  very  important  if  genuine.  Mr.  Moses, 
when  doing  some  automatic  writing,  asked  Rector,  the  control,  if 
he  could  read  the  contents  of  a  book;  on  his  answering  in  the  af¬ 
firmative,  Mr.  Moses  put  him  to  the  test,  and,  if  we  accept  the  ac¬ 
count  of  Mr.  Moses,  he  succeeded  in  a  remarkable  manner.  Mr. 
Moses  named  the  book,  the  shelf  on  which  it  stood,  the  number  of 
the  book  and  the  page  from  which  he  wanted  some  passage  read. 
Mr.  Moses  did  not  himself  know  what  was  on  the  page.  When 
Mr.  Myers  heard  of  this  phenomenon,  he  at  once  thought  that,  if 
such  a  thing  were  possible,  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  prove  the 


178  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

identity  of  any  discarnate  spirit  who  gave  the  contents  of  any  doc¬ 
ument  as  evidence.  He  at  once  saw  the  relation  of  the  possibility 
to  posthumous  letters,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  proof  of 
survival  would  depend  upon  the  concordant  results  of  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  insignificant  facts  from  different  sources.  He,  therefore, 
based  his  method  of  deciding  the  question  upon  a  system  of  cross¬ 
correspondences  which  should  rightly  articulate  in  illustrating  the 
personal  identity  of  a  given  person.  After  this  discovery  he  did 
not  attach  so  much  value  to  posthumous  letters  as  he  had  done 
before. 

After  his  death,  evidently  with  some  sense  of  humor,  he  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  prove  his  theory  by  giving  messages  which  illustrate 
cross-correspondence  and  the  obtaining  of  the  contents  of  a  post¬ 
humous  letter.  I  summarize  the  facts  in  tabular  form.  On  July 
13,  1904,  Mr.  Piddington  sat  down  in  the  office  of  the  Society  and 
wrote  out  his  posthumous  letter,  which  contained  references  to  the 
number  seven,  and  expressions  including  it.  He  said  that  he  would 
try,  after  death,  to  communicate  a  written  number  seven,  adding: 
“  I  should  try  to  communicate  such  things  as :  ‘  The  seven  lamps 

of  architecture,'  ‘  The  seven  sleepers  of  Ephesus,’  ‘  unto  seventy 
times  seven,’  ‘  We  are  seven,’  and  so  forth.”  He  went  on  to  say 
that  he  seemed  to  have  an  organic  interest  in  the  number  seven,  and 
that  it  might  have  made  such  an  impression  on  his  mind  that  he 
would  be  able  to  recall  it  as  a  spirit,  if  he  survived.  With  this  ex¬ 
planation  and  the  date  of  the  letter,  the  following  table  will  explain 
itself.  It  represents  the  dates  and  contents  of  automatic  writing 
through  the  several  psychics  named. 

The  force  of  the  coincidences  referring  to  Mr.  Piddington’s  let¬ 
ter  will  be  more  apparent  if  we  quote  the  whole  of  the  passage  that 
came  through  Mrs.  Verrall  on  July  13th,  1904.  The  whole  pas¬ 
sage  runs :  “  It  is  something  contemporary  that  you  are  to  record 

—  note  the  hour  —  in  London;  in  London  half  the  message  has 
come.”  Then  after  referring  to  the  posthumous  letters  of  Mr. 
Myers  and  Professor  Sidgwick,  the  passage  ends  with  a  reference 
to  Mr.  Piddington  as  follows:  “Surely  Piddington  will  see  that 
this  is  enough  and  should  be  acted  upon.” 

There  are  certain  marked  weaknesses  in  this  instance  of  cross- 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  179 


(i)  THE  POSTHUMOUS  LETTER. 


Date. 

Writer. 

Incidents. 

Possible  Allu¬ 
sions  TO  Letter. 

Jujy  13.  iyo4- 

Mr.  Piddingtoii 

Mr.  Piddington  writes 
Letter. 

in  London  half 
the  message  has 
come. 

July  13,  1904- 

Mrs.  Verrall. 

Contrast  between 
potency  of  dead 

July  15.  1904. 

Aliss  Verrall. 

and  living. 

(2)  REFERENCES  OF  AUTOMATISTS. 


Date. 

Writer. 

Incidents. 

Possible  Allu¬ 
sions  TO  Letter. 

May  8,  1908. 

May  12,  1908. 
July  23,  1908. 

Mrs.  Piper. 

Mrs.  Piper. 

Mrs.  Holland. 

We  are  seven. 

Seven  of  us  in  the  dis¬ 
tance. 

There  should  be  seven 
in  accord. 

(3)  DANTEAN  ALLUSIONS. 


Date. 

Writer. 

Incidents. 

Possible  Allu¬ 
sions  TO  Letter. 

Aug.  6,  1907. 

Miss  Verrall. 

A  rainbow :  the  seven¬ 
fold  radiance. 

He  himself  will 
seem  to  have 

May  11,  1908. 

Miss  Verrall. 

VVe  are  seven.  Many 
mystic  sevens.  Jacob’s 
ladder.  Seven  candles 
and  seven  colors  in  the 
rainbow. 

transferred  this. 

June  II,  1908. 

Mrs.  Frith. 

The  mystic  seven  and  the 
golden  candlestick. 

July  23,  1908. 

Mrs.  Holland. 

Green  beyond  belief — 
Green  Ray. 

July  24,  1908. 

Mrs.  Home. 

Seven  times  seven  and 
seventy  seven. 

(4)  ASSOCIATION  AND  OTHER  EXPERIMENTS. 


Date. 

Writer. 

Incidents. 

Possible  Allu¬ 
sions  to  Letter. 

Aug.  28,  1907. 

Mrs.  Verrall. 

Let  Piddington  choose  a 
sentence  and  send  a 
part  to  each. 

Jan.  27,  1909. 

L 

Mrs.  Verrall. 

Has  Piddington  found 
the  bits  of  his  sentence 
scattered  among  yon 
all? 

i8o  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


correspondence.  The  dates  of  the  incidents  create  a  doubt  about 
the  intention;  and  the  Dantean  allusions,  though  they  contain  fre¬ 
quent  mention  of  “  sevens,”  do  not  assure  us  by  anything  said  about 
their  reference  that  they  were  meant  to  indicate  Mr.  Piddington. 
We  have  only  the  contents  of  the  messages  to  suggest  him,  and 
the  skeptic  probably  would  not  be  satisfied  that  they  have  this 
import.  But  the  allusion  to  Mr.  Piddington  in  London  and  to 
the  hour,  with  other  references  to  sevens  make  it  fairly  probable 
that  his  posthumous  letter,  written  at  the  time  of  the  first  reference, 
was  meant.  The  allusion,  if  accepted,  shows  that  Mr.  Myers  was 
trying  to  prove  that  deceased  persons  might  read  the  contents  of 
posthumous  letters  before  their  writers  had  died,  and  so  might 
impersonate  the  writer.  In  this  way,  while  the  securing  of  the 
contents  of  posthumous  letters  of  the  living  or  the  dead  might  dis¬ 
prove  telepathy  between  the  living,  it  would  not  j)rove  personal 
identity  and  might  be  explained  by  telaesthesia  or  clairvoyance  by 
either  the  living  or  the  dead.  Apparently  to  emphasize  this  theory, 
Mr.  Myers,  on  January  27,  1909,  remarked  in  his  message:  “  But 
even  if  the  source  is  human,  who  carries  the  thoughts  to  the  re¬ 
ceivers?  Ask  him  that.”  He  had  mentioned  Mr.  Piddington  in 
the  message,  which  shows  exactly  the  same  conception  of  telep¬ 
athy  as  that  mentioned  in  a  message  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth  on 
November  28,  1911,  when  he  actually  used  the  word  “carry”  for 
the  process  and  said  that  it  was  the  “  guide  ”  or  “  familiar  ”  that 
“  carried  ”  or  transmitted  telepathic  messages.  This  aside,  how¬ 
ever,  the  main  point  is  that  in  this  real  or  apparent  cross-corre¬ 
spondence  he  is  demonstrating  that  not  the  posthumous  letter,  but 
the  articulation  of  bits  of  evidence  through  a  large  number  of 
psychics,  is  the  crucial  evidence  for  survival.  The  whole  episode  is 
remarkable  on  any  theory;  and,  quite  apart  from  the  question  of 
cross-correspondences,  it  gives  good  evidence  of  the  personal  iden¬ 
tity  of  Mr.  Myers. 

I  think  I  can  give  some  instances  of  cross-reference  in  which  the 
bare  statement  of  the  facts  will  carry  the  weight  of  evidence. 
Those  already  quoted  require  so  many  explanations  that  many 
people  will  not  fully  appreciate  their  value.  The  main  point  is 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  i8i 

the  accuracy  with  which  they  point  to  the  literary  and  classical 
tastes  of  Mr.  Myers  as  he  was  known  to  his  colleagues. 

A  lady  whom  I  have  called  Mrs.  Quentin,  who  was  a  person  of 
good  social  standing  in  New  York,  was  able  to  use  the  ouija  board. 
At  a  sitting  with  her  on  October  4,  1906,  four  other  persons  being 
present  and  only  three  of  us  at  the  table,  the  following  was  spelled 
out.  George  Pelham  purported  to  be  present  and  controlling  the 
messages. 

(Well,  George,  have  you  seen  any  of  my  friends  recently?) 

“  No,  only  Richard  PI.”  [Richard  Hodgson,  then  deceased.] 

(How  is  H.  ?) 

“  Progressive  as  ever.” 

(Is  he  clear?) 

“  Not  very.” 

(Do  you  mean  when  he  communicates  or  in  his  normal  state?) 

“  Oh,  all  right  normally.  Only  when  he  comes  into  that  wretched  at¬ 
mosphere  he  goes  to  pieces.  Wonder  how  long  it  will  take  him  to  overcome 
this.” 

(Do  you  see  Hodgson  often?) 

“Yes,  our  lives  run  in  parallels.” 

Mrs.  Quentin  knew  about  both  George  Pelham  and  Dr.  Hodgson, 
so  that  this  message  is  not  evidential.  The  allusion  to  his  going  to 
pieces  in  our  wretched  atmosphere  is  pertinent,  as  it  was  quite  true 
of  him  up  to  that  time,  in  all  the  messages  I  had  heard  from  him. 
But  the  passage  has  interest  in  the  light  of  what  follows. 

On  the  tenth  of  October,  six  days  later,  without  revealing  a  word 
of  my  experience  with  Mrs.  Quentin,  I  had  a  sitting  with  Mrs. 
Piper.  Dr.  Hodgson  purported  to  communicate  soon  after  the 
preliminaries. 

“  I  am  Hodgson.” 

(Good,  Hodgson,  how  are  you?) 

“  Capital.  How  are  you,  Hyslop,  old  chap  ?  ” 

(Fine.) 

“  Good,  glad  to  hear  it.  Did  you  receive  my  last  message  ?  ” 

(When  and  where?) 

“  I  told  George  to  give  it  to  you.” 

(Was  that  recently?) 

“  Yes,  very.” 

[After  some  further  statements  irrelevant  to  the  present  issue  I  put 
another  question.] 

(What  light  was  it  that  George  spoke  about?) 


i82  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


[I  thought  of  the  Smead  case,  expecting  something  would  be  said  about 

“  He  spoke  about  this  [Mrs.  Piper]  and  the  woman  you  experimented 
with.” 

[G.  P.  did  speak  spontaneously  of  the  Piper  case  at  the  sitting  with  Mrs. 
Quentin  and  also  made  some  pertinent  and  true  statements  about  the 
Smead  case,  agreeing  with  what  he  had  said  about  it  through  Mrs.  Piper 
some  years  before;  the  facts  had  not  been  published  and  hence  were  not 
known  to  Mrs.  Quentin.  After  a  further  interruption  the  communica¬ 
tion  continued.] 

“  Did  you  hear  me  say  George  ?  ” 

(When?) 

”  At  the  lady’s.” 

(No.)_ 

“  I  said  it  when  I  heard  you  say  Van.” 

(Was  that  the  last  time  I  had  an  experiment?) 

“  Yes,  we  do  not  want  to  make  any  mistake  or  confusion  in  this  Hyslop.” 

(Did  G.  P.  communicate  with  me  there?) 

"He  certainly  did.  Wasn’t  that  Funk?” 

(No,  Funk  was  not  there.) 

“  Was  it  his  son  ?  ” 

(No,  it  was  not  his  son.) 

”  It  resembled  him,  I  thought.  I  may  be  mistaken,  as  I  have  seen  him 
with  a  light  recently.” 

(Do  you  know  anything  that  George  said  to  me?) 

“  I  cannot  speak  his  exact  words,  but  the  idea  was  that  we  were  trying 
to  reach  you  and  communicate  there.” 

(Do  you  know  the  method  by  which  the  messages  came  to  us?) 

”  We  saw - ” 

[Mrs.  Piper’s  hand  ceased  writing  and  began  to  move  about  the  sheet 
of  paper  exactly  as  did  the  hand  of  Mrs.  Quentin  when  she  spelled  out 
the  words  by  the  ouija  board.  The  most  striking  feature  of  this  resemblance 
was  the  tendency  of  Mrs.  Piper’s  hand  to  move  back  to  the  center  of  the 
sheet,  as  Mrs.  Quentin’s  always  did  after  indicating  a  letter.] 

(That ’s  right.) 

“You  asked  the  board  questions  and  they  came  out  in  letters.” 

(That ’s  right.) 

“  I  saw  the  modus  operandi  well.  I  was  pleased  that  George  spelled 
his  name.  It  gave  me  great  delight.  I  heard  you  ask  who  was  with  him 
and  he  answered  R.  H.” 

(I  asked  him  how  you  were.) 

“  He  said  first  rate  or  very  well.  I  am  not  sure  of  the  exact  words.  Do 
you  mind  telling  me  just  how  the  words  were  understood.  Was  it  very 
well  or  all  right  ?  ” 

(The  words  were  ‘progressive  as  ever.’) 

"Oh  yes!  I  do  not  exactly  recall  those  words,  but  I  heard  your  ques¬ 
tion  distinctly,  Hyslop.  I  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  reach  you  and  prove 
my  identity.  Was  it  not  near  water,?” 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


183 


(Yes.) 

“And  in  a  light  room?  ” 

(Yes;  that’s  correct.) 

“  I  saw  you  sitting  at  a  table  or  near  it.” 

(Yes,  right.) 

"  Another  man  present  and  the  light  was  near  you.” 

(Yes.) 

I  saw  the  surroundings  very  clearly  when  George  was  speaking.  I  was 
taking  it  all  in,  so  to  speak.” 

The  reader  can  see  for  himself  without  any  explanation  the  con¬ 
nection  between  the  two  sittings.  I  have  only  to  say  that  I  do  not 
know  any  one  by  the  name  of  Van  and  nothing  was  said  about  such 
a  person  at  the  sitting  with  Mrs.  Quentin.  Nor  was  Dr.  Funk 
present.  He  might  have  been  experimenting  about  that  time,  as 
he  was  doing  much  work  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Hodgson  knew 
something  of  the  man.  Mrs.  Piper  little  or  nothing.  The  record 
indicates  the  correct  incidents  and  all  that  we  need  to  know  is  that 
Mrs.  Piper  could  not  have  known  the  facts. 

At  the  end  of  the  message  I  saw  my  chance  to  have  another  cross- 
reference;  and,  as  I  had  previously  made  arrangements  to  have  a 
sitting  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  my  first  and  made  for  me  by  another 
person,  who  did  not  give  my  name.  I  at  once  took  up  the  matter 
as  follows : — 

(Now,  Hodgson,  I  expect  to  try  another  case  this  afternoon.) 

“  Chenoweth.”  [Real  name  written.] 

(Yes,  that’s  right.) 

“  I  shall  be  there,  and  I  will  refer  to  books  and  give  my  initials  R.  H. 
only  as  a  test.” 

(Good.) 

“  And  I  w'ill  say  ‘  books.’  ” 

I  was  alone  at  the  Piper  sitting.  Mrs.  Piper  was  in  a  trance, 
from  which  she  recovered  without  any  memory  of  what  had  hap¬ 
pened  or  has  been  said  during  it.  Three  hours  afterward  I  went  to 
Mrs.  Chenoweth,  who  did  not  know  that  I  had  been  experimenting 
that  day  with  Mrs.  Piper  and  who  did  not  know  who  I  was.  The 
communication  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth  was  by  speech  in  a  light 
trance,  not  by  automatic  writing.  It  must  be  remembered  in  read¬ 
ing  the  record  that  the  process  was  pictographic  and  that  the  control 
or  the  subconscious  must  interpret  the  mental  pictures  which  come 


184  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

to  his  or  her  mind.  After  a  few  preliminaries  in  which  I  said 
nothing  about  my  work,  the  following  came,  just  after  the  men¬ 
tion  of  an  unrecognizable  name. 

“  Beside  him  is  Dr.  Hodgson.  It  is  part  of  a  promise  to  come  to  you 
to-day,  as  he  had  just  been  to  say  to  you  he  was  trying  not  to  be  intense, 
but  he  is  intense.  I  said  I  would  come  here.  I  am.  I  thought  I  might 
be  able  to  tell  different  things  I  already  told.  Perhaps  I  can  call  up  some 
past  interviews  and  make  things  more  clear.  Several  things  were  scattered 
around  at  different  places.  [Correct.]  He  says  he  is  glad  you  came  and 
to  make  the  trial  soon  after  the  other.” 

[I  put  a  pair  of  Dr.  Hodgson’s  gloves  which  I  had  with  me  in  Mrs.  Chen- 
oweth’s  hands.] 

“  You  know  I  don’t  think  he  wanted  them  to  help  him  so  much  as  he 
wanted  to  know  that  you  had  'them.  You  have  got  something  of  his.  It 
looks  like  a  book,  like  a  note  book,  with  a  little  writing  in  it.  That  is  only 
to  let  you  know  it.” 

[At  this  point  the  subject  was  spontaneously  changed  and  I  permitted 
things  to  take  their  own  course,  and  a  little  later  the  previous  subject  was 
resumed.] 

“There  is  something  he  said  he  would  do.  He  said:  ‘I  would  say 
like  a  word.’  I  said  I  would  say  —  I  know  it  is  a  word.  Your  name  is  n’t 
it?  [Apparently  said  by  psychic  to  the  communicator.]  I  said  I  would 
say  —  each  time  the  word  slips.  [Pause.]  I  am  afraid  I  can’t  get  it.  It 
sounds  —  looks  as  if  it  had  about  seven  or  eight  letters.  It  is  all  shaky  and 
wriggly,  so  that  I  can’t  see  it  yet. 

“  Can’t  you  write  it  down  for  him  so  I  can  see  ?  [Apparently  said  to 
the  communicator.]  C  [Psychic  then  shakes  her  head.  Pause.  Psychic’s 
fingers  then  write  on  the  table.]  Would  it  mean  anything  like  ‘  Com¬ 
rade  ’  ?  ” 

(No.) 

“  He  goes  away  again.” 

(All  right.  Don’t  worry.) 

“  Let  me  take  your  hand.” 

[Said  to  me:  I  placed  my  left  hand  in  the  psychic’s.] 

“  No  good.  I ’m  trying  to  do  it.  I  know  that  he  has  just  come  from 
the  other  place,  and  kept  his  promise  to  say  a  word.” 

This  passage  also  explains  itself  as  an  apparent,  but  unsuccess¬ 
ful,  attempt  to  get  his  name.  He  was  able  to  indicate  that  he  had 
promised  “  at  the  other  place  ”  to  come  here.  The  talk  about  a 
book  requires  no  explanation.  But  in  the  course  of  the  communi¬ 
cations  I  got  also  a  reference  to  “  a  pen  which  he  carried  in  his 
pocket.”  He  had  referred  at  the  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper  to  a 
“  stylographic  pen  ”  which  he  had  always  carried  in  his  pocket, 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  185 

while  his  pencils  were  carried  in  his  bag.  The  “  stylographic  pen  ” 
was  specially  kept  for  the  Imperator  personality  to  use  in  the  au¬ 
tomatic  writing  through  Mrs.  Piper.  It  was,  therefore,  pertinent 
to  mention  it  in  both  cases. 

I  went  again  that  evening  to  see  a  young  girl  who  was  just  de¬ 
veloping  psychic  power.  She  did  not  know  that  I  had  had  any 
sittings  on  that  day.  I  had  carefully  concealed  the  fact  from  her 
and  from  her  mother,  purposely  conducting  the  experiment  in  a 
manner  to  make  them  think  I  had  just  arrived  in  Boston.  I  put 
Dr.  Hodgson’s  gloves  into  the  girl’s  hands  and  she  began  immedi¬ 
ately  to  talk  about  books.  The  coincidence  with  the  other  two 
sittings  is  apparent,  but  I  did  not  secure  further  evidence  of  the 
connection. 

I  should  perhaps  add  one  more  cross-reference,  to  which  I  have 
referred  before,  but  which  is  so  good  that  it  should  perhaps  be  re¬ 
peated  in  detail  and  with  its  complications : 

On  February  7,  1900,  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Piper,  soon  after  I 
had  had  a  sitting  with  a  psychic  whom  I  thought  to  be  a  fraud,  my 
father,  evidently  alluding  to  the  experiment,  gave  me  a  pass  sen¬ 
tence  in  a  language  which  Mrs.  Piper  did  not  know,  and  suggested 
that,  unless  I  received  it  at  first  in  any  such  experiments,  I  need  not 
try  for  it.  On  March  7,  1901,  I  conducted  an  experiment  with 
Mrs.  Smead.  She  was  the  wife  of  an  orthodox  clergyman,  exempt 
from  all  suspicion  of  trickery,  and  in  no  respect  a  professional 
psychic.  In  her  trance,  when  my  father  purported  to  communi¬ 
cate,  I  asked  for  the  pass  sentence.  After  some  struggle  I  got  the 
first  word  of  it  very  clearly,  probably  the  second  word,  and  a  letter 
or  two  of  the  third,  but  certainly  not  the  whole  word.  Mrs.  Smead 
also  did  not  know  the  language  in  which  it  was  to  be  written.  On 
May  31,  1902,  I  had  a  sitting  with  a  lady  whom  I  shall  call  Miss 

W - ,  an  assistant  to  a  physician.  In  the  course  of  the  sitting 

the  communicator  came  to  the  sentence  spontaneously  and  without 
a  hint  from  me.  The  following  is  the  passage. 

“  I  doubt  if  I  can  give  you  the  one  thing  you  most  desire  this  moment. 

(What  do  I  desire  this  moment?)  [I  was  not  conscious  of  any  par¬ 
ticular  desire.] 

“The  sign,  well  not  exactly  password,  but  the  test.  If  you  will  keep 


i86  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


motionless,  I  can  be  able  to  give  even  that.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  give 
that  and  much  else  without  the  full  cooperation  of  the  messenger.  Let 
us  not  ask  too  much,  James.” 

It  was  called  both  a  “  password  ”  and  a  “  test  ”  in  the  records  of 
Mrs.  Piper,  which  had  not  been  published  at  that  time.  It  is  clearly- 
referred  to  here,  though  not  given,  and  the  allusion  is  evident  in 
the  expression,  “  cooperation  of  the  messenger.”  Imperator  al¬ 
ways  called  himself  a  “  Messenger  ”  in  the  work  of  Stainton  Moses 

and  Mrs,  Piper,  and  Miss  W - had  seen  none  of  the  work  of 

either  of  them.  Besides,  Imperator  always  claims  to  help  the  com¬ 
municator  when  he  is  present  and  his  aid  is  needed.  Miss  W - 

knew  nothing  of  these  circumstances. 

Later  still,  the  date  is  not  important,  I  had  an  experiment  with 
another  person  who  knew  nothing  about  the  facts,  as  they  had  not 
)-et  been  published;  and,  on  my  asking  for  the  pass  sentence,  she 
also  not  knowing  the  language  in  which  it  was  to  be  written,  I  got 
the  English  of  it. 

In  quoting  incidents  which  establish  personal  identity,  I  shall 
give  first  an  illustration  of  the  difficulties  attending  the  application 
of  the  telepathic  hypothesis  to  the  facts.  It  involves  events  which 
happened  in  various  parts  of  the  world  and  yet  purport  to  come 
from  the  only  person  who  ever  had  the  knowledge  of  them  all  in 
his  mind. 

A  lady  of  whom  I  had  never  heard  in  my  life  wrote  me  from 
Germany  asking  if  I  could  recommend  to  her  a  psychic,  saying 
she  had  lost  her  husband  and  in  her  distress  of  mind  wished  to  be 
convinced  of  a  future  life,  hoping  that  communications  from  her 
deceased  husband  would  convince  her  of  it,  if  he  actually  survived 
and  could  communicate.  I  replied  to  her  inquiry  that  I  did  not 
know  of  any  psychic  in  Germany,  but  that  I  could  give  her  sittings 
when  she  returned  to  America.  She  replied  that  she  could  not 
come  to  America,  but  that  she  had  a  sister  living  in  Boston  who 
might  take  the  sittings  in  her  place.  I  then  wrote  her  for  name 
and  address  of  this  sister  and  asked  her  to  send  me  an  article 
wrapped  in  a  special  covering  and  said  I  would  arrange  for  the 
sister’s  presence  in  due  time.  I  had  never  heard  of  her  husband, 
who  had  been  a  teacher  of  philosophy  in  a  small  western  university 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  187 

of  which  also  I  had  never  heard.  This  institution  was  on  the  Pa¬ 
cific  coast.  Pie  fell  ill  there  and  went  to  Germany,  his  native  place, 
where  he  died. 

As  soon  as  I  could  fix  dates  for  sittings  I  did  so  and  arranged  for 
the  lady’s  sister  to  see  me  at  my  hotel  at  a  certain  hour  on  the  date 
of  the  first  sitting.  I  did  not  tell  her  whom  we  were  to  see  or  where 
we  were  going.  I  never  give  sitters  any  information  of  the  name  or 
address  of  the  psychic.  I  also  put  her  into  a  trance  before  admitting 
the  sitter.  These  conditions  were  observed  on  the  occasions  of  the 
present  sittings.  The  following  facts  summarize  the  results. 

As  soon  as  the  automatic  writing  began,  the  letter  O  was  written, 
or  the  circle  which  had  been  used  for  the  sign  Omega  by  Professor 
James  in  his  communications  three  years  before.  After  the  circle 
had  occurred  several  times  the  sign  of  the  cross  was  made  inside 
or  over  it.  I  recognized  its  import  but  said  nothing  in  recognition, 
though  I  saw  no  reason  for  its  appearance  on  this  occasion.  I  had 
never  known  nor  heard  of  the  communicator  I  was  seeking  and 
knew  not  whether  he  had  any  connections  with  Professor  James. 
The  sequel  showed  that  they  had  been  personal  friends,  and  the 
significance  of  the  circle  and  the  cross  was  indicated  in  response  to 
my  query  a  little  later,  when  I  wanted  the  record  to  explain  its  sig¬ 
nificance.  When  the  desired  communicator  broke  down,  Jennie 
P.  came  in  to  write;  in  the  course  of  her  automatic  writing  I  asked 
her  what  the  circle  and  cross  meant,  though  knowing  well  enough. 
Her  reply  was,  “  W.  J.”,  and  I  was  satisfied  that  these  were  the 
initials  of  Professor  James,  as  they  have  nearly  always  been  used 
to  denote  him. 

The  giving  of  the  circle  and  the  cross  was  followed  by  a  short 
communication  from  Imperator  intimating  that  he  soon  expected  to 
fulfill  a  desire  of  mine  with  reference  to  another  case  which  I  had 
brought  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  wanting  the  judgment  of  Imperator 
on  it.  Immediately  following  Imperator  came  another  communi¬ 
cator.  It  took  some  time  to  make  clear  that  I  was  on  the  right 
track.  I  simply  let  the  communicator  take  his  own  course.  The 
very  first  sentence  took  the  right  direction. 

“  I  will  try  to  write  for  her,  for  it  is  good  to  have  the  chance  to  do  so. 
We  are  four  over  here  in  a  loving  group  this  morning.  One  woman,  three 


i88  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


men,  ail  so  anxious  to  tell  her  about  the  life  we  remember  and  the  life  we 
live  now.  There  are  others  who  wish  to  come,  but  they  will  wait. 

“  I  am  not  entirely  new  to  this  belief  and  neither  is  she  and  her  own  ex¬ 
periences  ought  to  help  at  this  time.” 

(Yes.) 

“  I  know  the  questionings  of  her  intellect  and  also  her  belief  in  the 
power,  and  I  would  not  scoff  nor  laugh  now,  but  rejoice  that  the  time  is 
given  me  to  try  my  own  power.” 

(Good.) 

“  I  did  not  want  too  much  of  this  talk  before,  but  I  cannot  get  enough  of 
it  now.  I  did  not  want  to  die.  I  don’t  know  as  any  one  does,  but  any  way 
I  wanted  to  live  and  accomplish  things  and  finish  my  work,  but  it  was  no 
use,  I  could  not  weather  the  gale.” 

The  first  sentence  implies  that  it  was  a  lady  who  wished  to  hear 
from  the  communicator.  Of  course  a  lady  was  present,  and  the 
critic  will  say  that  the  psychic  knew  this  and  that  the  reference  on 
that  account  has  no  significance.  But  we  must  remember  that  the 
psychic  had  not  seen  the  sitter,  neither  in  her  normal  state  nor  in 
her  trance,  and  had  no  means  of  knowing  whether  it  was  a  man  or 
a  woman  who  was  present,  unless  she  guessed  from  hyperassthetic 
perception  of  her  walking  upstairs  and  into  the  room,  or  the  slight 
noise  from  the  movement  of  her  dress  when  coming  into  the  room. 
But  Mrs.  Chenoweth  never  shows  this  power  in  other  instances. 
In  fact  she  is  very  often  normally  mistaken  about  the  situation, 
sometimes  thinking  a  person  is  present  when  he  is  not,  or  thinking 
none  there  when  a  sitter  is  present,  and  sometimes,  I  might  say  al¬ 
ways,  ignorant  of  the  sex,  unless  told.  Besides,  a  little  later,  after 
a  few  sentences,  the  communicator  referred  to  the  lady  who  wished 
to  hear  from  him  as  “  belonging  to  me,”  an  expression  constantly 
used  in  this  work  to  denote  husband  or  wife,  and  hence  not  ap¬ 
plying  to  the  sitter,  though  a  guessing  medium  might  try  the  phrase 
for  leverage.  But  he  soon  remarked  that  his  “  father  was  over 
here,”  which  was  true  of  the  communicator.  Soon  after  this  state¬ 
ment  and  some  general  and  non-evidential  messages  the  communi¬ 
cator  gave  up  and  was  followed  by  Jennie  P. 

As  soon  as  I  could  ask  Jennie  P.  what  the  circle  and  cross  meant, 
she  replied  by  the  initials  “  W.  J.,”  which  were  correct.  She  then 
made  some  flings,  in  her  humorous  way,  at  cross-references,  and 
then  proceeded  with  the  following  statements : 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  189 

“  Did  you  know  that  the  lady  is  psychic  ?  ” 

(No,  I  did  not.) 

“  She  has  had  some  experiences  of  her  own.  I  do  not  mean  with  other 
lights,  but  alone,  and  she  really  has  clairvoyant  power,  if  it  were  only 
unfolded;  but  she  is  one  of  those  cautious  kind  and  does  not  want  to  let 
her  imagination  run  away  with  her.  Do  you  know  anything  about  a 
mother  in  the  spirit?” 

(Yes,  his  mother  is  dead.)  [Sitter  nodded  head.] 

“  And  there  is  such  a  desire  on  her  part  to  come  here  to-day.  She  has 
been  gone  some  time  and  she  has  not  much  acquaintance  with  this  sort 
of  business.  Is  that  true?” 

(That  is  correct.)  [Sitter  nodded  head.] 

The  communicator’s  wife,  not  present  but  in  Europe,  is  quite 
psychic,  a  fact  that  I  did  not  know  at  the  time.  I  learned  it  from 
inquiries  after  the  sitting.  She  had  had  a  number  of  experiences 
of  her  own  and  it  was  probably  these  that  induced  her  to  apply  to 
me.  She  distrusted  her  own  experiences,  fearing  that  they  were 
imagination  or  subconscious  action.  Her  mother  was  dead,  a  fact 
not  known  to  me,  but  known  to  the  sitter.  Her  mother  was  of  a 
very  religious  nature  and  had  known  nothing  of  these  phenomena. 

The  communications  went  on  with  some  correct,  though  not 
striking,  statements  about  this  mother,  among  them  that  the  com¬ 
municator  had  “  a  deep  reverence  for  his  mother.”  This  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  reference  to  the  sitter  implying,  though  not  asserting, 
that  she  was  his  wife.  Jennie  P.,  acting  as  an  intermediary,  made 
the  statement  with  this  implication  and  I  did  not  correct  it.  I  then 
asked  what  the  nature  of  his  work  was  and  the  answer  by  Jennie 
P.  was  that  it  was  “  philosophical  ”  and  that  “  he  philosophized 
about  everything.”  This  was  true.  He  was  a  teacher  of  the  sub¬ 
ject.  General  messages  of  a  non-evidential  character  followed, 
until  I  was  asked  whether  I  knew  any  one  named  William  with 
whom  the  communicator  was  associated.  I  replied  by  the  query 
whether  it  was  ”  W.  J.”  and  Jennie  P.  at  once  answered  that  she 
did  not  know  it  was  he  and  proceeded  to  say  that  she  would  leave, 
but  finished  with  the  statement : 

“  Just  aS  I  said  I  go,  he  put  his  hand  to  his  mouth  and  I  saw  a  cavity 
as  if  one  or  two  teeth  had  been  extracted  and  the  funny  part  of  it  was  that 
I  saw  him  take  them  out  himself.  It  looks  as  if  he  had  something  happen 
to  his  teeth.  Did  he  have  a  tooth  which  he  lost  and  had  replaced  by  a 
new  one  ? ” 


190  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

(I  don’t  know.) 

“  It  seems  to  be  a  space  about  big  enough  for  one,  perhaps  two,  but  not 
more  than  that  and  here  is  something  about  some  dentistry  which  involved 
that  space.” 

This  incident  came  suddenly  and  apparently  irrelevantly.  Of  it 
the  widow  writes :  “  He  lacked  just  one  tooth,  but  the  cavity  was 

not  visible.  He  had,  however,  a  tooth  filled  in  Portland,  Oregon, 
about  a  year  ago,  and  was  very  much  dissatisfied  with  the  dentist 
and  refused  to  pay  the  exorbitant  price  he  asked.” 

Nothing  more  came  in  the  automatic  writing,  but  the  first  thing 
that  appeared  in  the  subliminal  stage  of  the  recovery  was  the 
capital  letter  T.,  which  was  the  initial  of  his  name.  The  subliminal, 
however,  suspected  the  name  Theodore,  which  was  the  name  of  the 
communicator  of  the  week  before.  I  denied  that  this  was  correct 
when  asked  by  the  subliminal  if  it  was,  but  I  said  no  more. 

The  automatic  writing  of  the  next  day  began  with  general  ob¬ 
servations  on  the  communicator’s  new  life  and  experiences,  as  if  he 
were  merely  practising  until  he  could  get  control ;  he  then  made  an 
allusion  to  my  desire  for  evidence  and  at  once  began  the  effort  to 
give  it. 

“  There  was  a  great  deal  of  pain  in  my  head.  I  could  not  seem  to  think 
clearly,  so  much  confusion,  you  know  what  I  mean.” 

(Yes  perfectly.) 

”  And  the  confusion  of  ideas  made  everything  seem  unreal  and  some 
of  the  things  I  said  were  meaningless,  like  one  talking  in  his  sleep.  Still 
I  was  not  asleep  nor  yet  irresponsible  entirely.  It  seemed  as  if  there  were 
more  people  about  than  there  really  were,  but  just  at  the  last  moment  there 
was  peace  and  hush  and  no  more  hurrying  to  and  fro.  I  longed  for  home.” 

Mrs.  Tausch  writes  in  regard  to  this  statement  that  he  did  suffer 
a  great  deal  of  pain  in  the  head  and  that  a  short  time  before  his 
death  he  was  delirious  and  talked  incoherently  at  the  last.  When 
she  arrived  at  his  side  she  was  not  sure  that  he  recognized  her. 
There  were  only  two  at  his  side  when  he  died,  Mrs.  Tausch  and  her 
sister-in-law. 

The  messages  continued  immediately  with  reminiscences  of  the 
last  illness,  one  or  two  of  much  interest.  The  allusion  to  his  long¬ 
ing  for  home  implied  that  he  died  away  from  it,  a  fact  which  I  did 
not  know.  But  to  help  make  the  allusion  clear  I  began  with  a 
question. 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


191 


(Did  you  not  pass  away  at  home?) 

“  No,  I  did  not  mean  that  I  was  away  from  home,  so  much  as  that 
it  was  not  like  home  at  all  and  the  noise  of  the  feet  on  the  floor  troubled 
me.  You  know  what  I  mean,  the  footsteps,  first  on  the  carpet,  then  on 
something  bare. 

“  1  wish  to  recall  something  gray  which  was  thrown  about  me  as  I  was 
lifted  up  to  take  something  from  a  cup.  It  was  only  a  partial  lifting  but 
this  gray  garment  was  over  my  shoulders.  So  weak  I  could  not  do  it 
myself.” 

He  then  evidently  attempted  to  refer  to  his  mother,  who  was 
dead,  and  then  referred  to  his  children  as  living. 

He  left  two  children  when  he  died.  He  died,  not  at  his  home  in 
America,  but  at  his  old  home  in  Germany.  Mrs.  Tausch  thinks  that 
walking  on  the  floor  disturbed  him,  but  she  was  not  a  personal 
witness  of  the  fact.  He  was  constantly  getting  up  and  sitting 
wrapped  in  his  mother’s  gray  dressing-gown.  It  is  probable  that  he 
drank  medicine  or  nutriment  from  a  cup.  Outside  of  his  sick  room 
was  a  pretty  scene.  It  was  a  picturesque  village  with  an  old  convent 
in  view.  Of  the  children  he  said  they  needed  him  more  as  an  ad¬ 
visor  than  as  provider.  The  reverse  was  true.  They  needed  his 
provision  more  than  his  advice  at  their  young  age.  But  he  went 
on  with  his  message. 

“  I  wish  to  prove  to  them  all  that  I  was  not  a  fool  to  be  intere.sted  in 
this  belief  of  spirit.  You  know  what  I  mean.” 

(Yes.) 

“  It  is  not  so  easy  to  prove  as  it  is  to  believe.” 

(Yes,  that  is  right.) 

“  I  also  had  some  records  I  had  been  much  interested  in.” 

(Yes,  do  you  mean  they  were  your  own?) 

“  No.” 

(Whose?) 

“  Others.  My  personal  experience  was  limited.” 

(Yes,  do  you  know  whose  records  they  were?) 

“  Yes,  J.  had  some.” 

(Let  me  be  sure  what  the  J.  is  for?) 

“  My  friend  James.” 

Now  Professor  James  was  a  friend  of  the  communicator,  and 
Mrs.  Tausch  wrote  in  response  to  my  inquiries  that  Professor 
James  had  given  them  records  to  read  and  that  they  had  done  so. 
Of  course  I  knew  nothing  of  this  fact,  and  indeed  nothing  of  the 
man  and  his  life. 


192  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

This  message  was  followed  by  a  reference  to  a  long  country 
road  with  birch  trees  on  its  sides,  a  stone  wall,  and  the  road  wind¬ 
ing  round  a  hill. 

He  intimated  also  that  he  had  suffered  from  shortness  of  breath, 
apparently  caused  by  climbing  the  hill  referred  to.  Mrs.  Tausch 
says  he  did  walk  over  such  a  road  the  last  year  of  his  life,  but  there 
were  no  birches  on  it.  He  suffered  from  shortness  of  breath, 
caused  by  asthma,  not  by  climbing  the  hill,  though  the  latter  would 
probably  produce  the  same  effect.  He  then  referred  to  his  wife 
with  an  initial  B.,  which  is  a  letter  in  her  name,  but  not  significant 
here.  He  referred  to  himself  as  a  philosopher,  which  was  correct, 
and  then  to  “  some  things  near  an  old  furnace,”  which  could  not  be 
verified.  He  referred  to  Harvard  and  Columbia  Universities, 
claiming  to  be  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  which  he  was  not.  But  he 
had  visited  both  universities  and  knew  the  head  of  the  philosophy 
department  at  Columbia.  He  referred  to  the  name  Fiske  and  con¬ 
nected  it  with  a  place  which  he  said  his  wife  would  know,  saying 
that  the  man  was  dead.  He  had  patronized  the  Fiske  Teachers’ 
Agency.  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  the  death  of  the  man. 
But  he  went  on  with  other  incidents. 

“  Does  she  remember  how  I  used  to  fuss  about  clocks  ?  I  wanted  them 
to  be  right.  Does  she  not  know  what  I  mean  ?  ” 

(She  does  not  know.)  [Sitter,  sister-in-law,  shook  her  head,  knowing 
nothing  about  his  private  and  domestic  life.] 

“  I  was  always  fixing  things.  [Hand  then  seized  the  article  on  the 
table  which  was  a  purse  enclosed  in  oiled  silk.]  My  purse.” 

(Yes.)  [Might  have  detected  it  by  touch.] 

“  Well,  well,  that  ought  to  bring  a  man  to  his  senses.  I  am  getting  hold 
a  little  now,  but  is  it  not  hard  work?  ” 

(Yes.) 

“  My  books,  does  she  not  know  about  my  books  and  library,  so  many  of 
them  which  have  been  annotated  for  use.  T  h  T.”  [Pencil  fell  and  con¬ 
trol  lost.] 

Mrs.  Tausch  says  that  he  did  fuss  about  the  clocks  a  great  deal, 
especially  a  cuckoo  clock  which  he  always  wound  up.  As  to  an¬ 
notating  his  books  Mrs.  Tausch  says:  “  Well,  he  was  the  greatest 
man  for  that.  He  always  read  with  pencil  in  hand” 

The  letter  is  the  initial  of  his  name  and  ”  h  ”  the  last  letter  in  it. 
As  he  came  to  the  end  of  his  message  he  evidently  tried  to  sign 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS  193 

his  name,  but  broke  down,  and  the  automatic  writing  came  to  a 
close. 

In  the  subliminal  recovery,  reference  was  made  to  “  Rome  in 
New  York.”  The  sitter  knew  no  reason  for  referring  to  it,  but 
Mrs.  Tausch,  though  she  could  give  no  special  meaning  to  it,  said 
that  he  had  travelled  about  New  York  State  lecturing  in  various 
places,  and  Rome  may  have  been  one  of  them.  A  further  refer¬ 
ence  was  made  to  Niagara  Falls  and  Mt.  Tom  with  a  house  on 
it.  Also  a  yellow  building  was  described,  with  the  intimation  that 
it  was  on  Mt.  Tom.  This  house  is  not  recognized  by  Mrs.  Tausch, 
as  having  any  meaning,  nor  has  the  reference  to  Niagara  Falls. 
But  Professor  Tausch  visited  Little  Falls,  in  New  York,  and,  in  a 
mental  picture,  which  was  the  method  of  communication  employed 
here,  this  mistake  might  easily  occur  and  influence  the  subliminal. 
Mt.  Tom  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about  save  that  such  a 
place  existed.  It  seems  that  the  reference  to  Mt.  Tom  has  no 
relevance  to  Professor  Tausch,  but  he  had  visited  Mt.  Chocorua, 
on  which  there  is  a  conspicuous  house.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  the 
latter  very  well,  having  taught  in  that  locality. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  next  sitting,  after  a  few  general  remarks 
while  getting  control,  the  communicator  gave  the  following  in¬ 
cident  ; 

“  Do  you  know  about  a  man  younger  than  I,  still  alive  in  your  world, 

most  near  to  me  and  my  work,  C - yes  C - and  I  want  to  write  about 

something  which  was  done  by  a  group  of  men  in  connection  with  my 
death,  resolutions  and  something  in  the  way  of  a  tribute  which  was  sent 
by  my  associates  to  the  family.  You  know  about  that.” 

[I  asked  the  sitter  whether  she  knew  about  this,  but  she  shook  her 
head.] 

(I  don’t  know.  I  shall  inquire  elsewhere.) 

“Yes,  I  knew  about  it  and  it  was  a  pretty  thing  to  do  and  I  wonder  if 
she  knows  who  M  is,  alive.  Ask  her  M.” 

(Yes.)  [Sitter  nodded  head  and  said;  “My  name  is  ”  I  waved 
my  hand  before  she  uttered  it  and  stopped  her.] 

“  Dear  to  me  and  alive,  that  is  what  I  mean.” 

(What  relation  to  you  is  this  M?) 

“  When  you  ask  a  question,  every  spirit  in  the  room  begins  to  answer 
mentally  and  that  knocks  the  pins  out  from  under  me.  You  know  I  told 
you  it  seemed  to  be  a  mental  process  and  every  man  here  has  his  head 
on  his  shoulders  and  hears  your  question.  I  will  do  the  best  I  can.” 


194  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Later  the  relationship  was  stated,  and  the  message  went  on  with 
a  new  incident  to  be  given  presently.  The  initial  of  the  lady  present 
was  M.  I  did  not  know  it  myself.  But  it  is  the  incident  given 
just  prior  to  this  initial  that  is  most  interesting.  The  sitter  knew 
nothing  about  it  and  Mrs.  Tausch  writes  me  regarding  it, 

“  His  death  was  published  in  Ohio  papers  and  I  was  asked  by  a 
former  fellow-professor  —  not  a  close  friend  —  whose  first  name 
was  Clement,  to  send  biographical  notes  of  his  life.  Besides  there 
came  a  great  many  letters  of  condolence  with  handsome  tributes  to 
him.”  The  communicator’s  position  as  a  teacher  was,  as  indicated, 
in  Oregon,  not  Ohio,  so  that  the  incidents  here  mentioned  refer  to 
friends  who  knew  him  in  another  State. 

Without  a  break  then  the  new  incident  was  taken  up ; 

“  I  want  to  speak  about  a  glass  and  a  small  bag  in  which  I  carried  papers, 
manuscripts,  and  the  glass  was  a  magnifying,  reading  glass.  Ask  her  if 
she  recalls  either  of  those,  the  bag  I  used  to  put  other  things  in,  but  the 
papers  went  to  the  bottom  always.” 

(I  shall  ask  about  it.) 

“And  I  recall  trying  to  do  some  work  just  before  I  came  here.  That 
you  probably  know  already.” 

(I  myself  do  not  know  it,  and  perhaps  you  had  best  tell  just  what  it 
was.) 

“  I  had  planned  and  arranged  to  do  some  particular  work  and  tried  to 
complete  it,  but  it  was  beyond  my  strength.” 

Mrs.  Tausch  writes  regarding  these  incidents :  “  He  carried  a 

bag  in  which  he  put  his  manuscripts.  He  did  not  use  a  magnifying 
glass,  but  carried  eye  glasses  in  his  bag  and  always  lost  them.  He 
had  planned  an  essay  on  ‘  The  Relation  Between  Science  and  Re¬ 
ligion.’  But  he  died  before  he  could  do  anything  with  it.  An 
American  college  offered  a  prize  for  such.” 

It  is  probable  that  the  eye  glasses  magnified  somewhat,  so  that 
Mrs.  Tausch,  not  understanding  the  pictographic  process  of  com¬ 
municating,  may  not  have  noticed  the  approximate  truth  of  the 
communication. 

There  followed  a  long  passage  which  had  many  characteristic 
hits  in  it,  though  mainly  expressed  in  isolated  words.  For  in¬ 
stance,  he  referred  to  ethics  and  his  interest  in  the  subject,  which 
his  wife  says  was  one  of  his  passions.  He  also  intimated  his  rea- 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


195 

son  for  staying  in  the  church  though  his  own  creed  was  too  liberal 
for  strict  adherence,  and  he  gave  as  his  reason  for  remaining  in  the 
church  against 'his  liberal  creed  that  it  was  better  to  be  associated 
with  the  good  than  with  those  who  disregarded  it.  This  was  true 
of  his  career  in  life.  The  name  Lizzie  came  in  the  same  connection ; 
it  was  the  name  (Elizabeth)  of  his  living  wife ;  he  said  that  she  was 
alive.  The  sitter,  however,  thought  he  was  giving  the  name  “  Les¬ 
lie,”  which  she  recognized,  and  so  spoiled  the  completion  of  the 
reference.  He  described  a  brick  church,  but  the  wife  does  not  re¬ 
call  it. 

Then  came  the  effort  to  give  his  name.  I  got,  without  any  help 
on  my  part,  variously  Taussh,  Tauch,  and  Taush,  once  “  Tucah  ” 
and  once  “  Tach.”  The  reader  will  see  that  I  got  all  the  letters  and 
two  or  three  times  the  name  phonetically.  I  then  began  speaking 
German  to  him  and  I  got  a  few  disjointed  replies  in  German,  among 
them  the  relationship  of  the  sitter  to  him :  “  Geschwister,”  and  a 
few  other  words.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  does  not  know  Genuan,  save 
four  words:  “  Federmesser,”  and  “  Wie  viel  Uhr,”  the  latter  of 
which  she  speaks  incorrectly. 

Then  a  reference  was  made  in  the  subliminal  to  the  railway  and 
a  long  trip,  and  the  statement  was  made  that  after  his  death  his 
body  was  taken  on  a  railway.  This  was  not  correct.  Perhaps  the 
whole  passage  should  be  quoted. 

“Do  you  know  where  there  is  a  long  stretch  of  railroad  track?” 

(No.) 

“  A  long  long  track.” 

(Where?) 

“  Oh,  I  don’t  know.  Wait  a  minute.  Has  there  been  a  spirit  here  whose 
body  was  taken  on  a  railroad  -track  after  his  death  ?  ” 

(No.)  [Sitter  shook  her  head  to  my  inquiry.] 

(That  spirit  who  has  been  here  did  not  have  his  body  on  the  train,  but 
perhaps  some  friend  of  his  did.) 

“  No,  it  seems  connected  with  him,  connected  with  him  just  near  his 
death.  I  can’t  get  it  very  clearly.  I  seem  to  want  to  go  to  his  grave. 
There  are  two  or  three  trees  there  that  look  like  evergreens  and  are  in 
some  sort  of  a  conical  shape  right  near  his  grave.  They  don’t  grow  that 
way,  but  are  cut  in  conical  shape.” 

Professor  Tausch  took  a  long  railway  trip  from  Oregon  via 
Quebec  to  Germany  just  before  he  died  and  was  physically  ex- 


196  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

hausted  by  it.  He  returned  to  Germany  because  of  bad  health  in 
connection  with  asthma.  Probably  this  incident  got  confused  with 
the  reference  to  his  grave,  as  he  was  trying,  pictographically,  to 
give  an  account  of  these  last  events.  Mrs.  Tausch  knew  nothing 
about  the  evergreens  and  so  I  asked  her  to  have  photographs  taken 
of  his  grave.  This  was  in  Silesia.  She  directed  that  my  request 
be  fulfilled  and  when  I  received  the  photographs  conical  shaped 
evergreens  were  visible  not  far  from  the  man’s  grave. 

There  were  minor  points  of  interest,  but  it  would  require  the 
whole  record  and  much  comment  to  bring  out  their  significance. 
What  I  want  to  emphasize  is  the  fact  that  the  incidents  required  con¬ 
firmation  by  correspondence  with  Mrs.  Tausch,  who  was  in  Ger¬ 
many  and  who  was  the  only  person  who  knew  the  facts,  and  even 
she  did  not  know  some  of  them,  inquiry  having  to  be  made  in 
Silesia  to  verify  them.  The  believer  in  telepathy  will  have  to  stretch 
that  theory  inordinately  to  meet  the  situation,  and  that  is  the  value 
of  the  facts;  namely,  that  they  put  that  process  to  its  wits’  end  to 
vindicate  its  rationality. 

Another  case  is  interesting  because  it  involves  something  like  a 
cross-correspondence  or  cross-reference,  and  also  contains  a  com¬ 
plication  of  some  interest  because  of  the  connection  between  re¬ 
mote  personalities. 

A  man  in  the  practice  of  international  law  had  a  lady.  Miss  De 
Camp,  as  his  secretary.  She  developed  automatic  writing  and  was 
soon  writing  stories  purporting  to  come  from  the  late  Frank  R. 
Stockton,  who  had  died  in  1902.  Miss  De  Camp’s  work  began  in 
1909.  The  stories  were  sufficiently  like  those  of  Mr.  Stockton, 
despite  subconscious  influences,  to  enable  Mr.  Henry  Alden,  the 
editor  of  “  Harper’s  Monthly,”  to  say  that  they  were  “  very  real.” 
Mr.  John  R.  Meader,  who  had  specially  studied  Stockton,  said 
that  the  stories  were  “  very  characteristic.”  There  were  occasional 
indications  of  personal  identity  in  the  expression  as  well  as  the  plot 
of  the  stories.  But,  as  Miss  De  Camp  had  read  “  The  Lady  or  the 
Tiger  ”  when  she  was  a  small  child,  though  nothing  else  of  Stock¬ 
ton’s,  we  had  to  allow  for  the  possible  influence  of  latent  subcon¬ 
scious  knowledge.  When  I  learned  that  the  New  York  “World  ” 
was  going  to  publish  some  of  the  stories,  I  resolved  to  make  some 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


197 

cross-reference  experiments  before  the  stories  were  made  public. 
I  therefore  took  Miss  De  Camp  to  Boston  and  had  her  registered 
in  a  hotel  under  an  assumed  name.  I  then  took  her  to  Mrs.  Cheno- 
w-eth  under  the  conditions  so  often  described.  Miss  De  Camp  en¬ 
tered  the  room  after  Mrs.  Chenoweth  was  in  the  trance,  and  left  it 
before  Mrs.  Chenoweth  recovered  normal  consciousness. 

At  the  first  sitting  the  name  “  Frank  ”  came.  This  was  re¬ 
ferred  to  several  times  before  he  communicated  directly;  then  I 
got  the  name  “  Frank  Richard  Stockton,”  with  some  confusion 
about  Richard  at  first.  This  was  the  middle  name,  not  consciously 
known  to  either  myself  or  Miss  De  Camp.  He  also  gave  Francis, 
which  was  his  real  name,  not  given  in  the  ”  Century  Dictionary.” 
He  then  told  when  and  where  he  died;  namely,  in  Washington, 
D.  C.,  in  April.  He  discussed  at  some  length  the  work  he  was 
doing  with  Miss  De  Camp,  showing  that  he  was  the  source  of  her 
stories,  whatever  allowances  be  made  for  the  influence  of  her  sub¬ 
conscious,  which,  it  must  be  said,  is  not  apparent  to  any  large 
extent. 

There  were  many  touches  of  personal  character  and  wit,  though 
these  were  probably  colored  by  the  influence  of  the  control  and  the 
subconscious  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth ;  but  one  passage  in  this  vein  will 
be  interesting  and  serve  as  an  example  of  many  more.  I  had 
brought  up  the  question  of  skeptical  critics  in  order  to  make  him 
see,  as  a  communicator,  the  necessity  of  evidence  for  personal 
identity  more  specific  than  a  general  avowal  of  what  he  was  doing 
through  Miss  De  Camp. 

“  I  really  have  a  desire  to  do  a  certain  kind  of  work,  but  deliver  me  from 
the  class  who  cut  up  their  relatives  to  see  how  their  corpuscles  match  up. 

“  I  think  I  won’t  do  for  your  business  at  all,  but  personally  I  have  no 
fight  with  you.  You  can  go  on  and  save  all  the  critics  you  can,  but  don’t 
send  them  to  me  when  they  die.” 

(All  right.) 

“■  For  I  would  make  no  heavenly  kingdom  for  them.  I  had  my  share  of 
them  while  I  lived,  and  I  wash  my  hands  of  the  whole  lot.” 

(I  understand.) 

“  I  do  remember  some  pleasant  times  I  had  with  my  little  friend  when 
I  was  alive.  That  sounds  like  an  Irishman’s  toast,  doesn’t  it;  for  I  would 
hardly  be  talking  unless  I  were  alive.  Do  you  know  the  Irishman’s 
toast?  ” 


198  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

(I  Mon’t  think  I  do.) 

“  May  you  live  to  see  the  green  grass  growing  over  your  grave.  Do 
you  see  the  comparison  ?  ” 

There  is  much  that  is  more  evidential  than  this  passage,  but  it 
would  require  too  much  explanation  to  quote  it  here.  The  next 
point  of  interest  is  the  appearance  of  the  man  who  had  introduced 
me  to  Miss  De  Camp.  He  was  Mr.  George  F.  Duysters.  When 
living,  he  had  taken  his  secretary.  Miss  De  Camp,  with  the  family 
on  a  strolling  trip  in  the  mountains,  and  Miss  De  Camp  had  asked 
for  a  drawing  of  the  scene  where  they  had  camped  near  a  stream 
of  water.  Mr.  Duysters  was  a  good  draftsman,  and  drew  a  rough 
sketch  of  the  place,  intending  some  day  to  finish  it.  It  consisted 
of  a  hollow  stump  with  a  charred  hole  in  its  side,  some  lines  for 
the  stream  of  water,  an  outline  of  a  small  fir  tree,  the  covered  wagon 
with  three  circles  for  the  wheels.  It  was  put  away  for  keeping. 
But  before  he  had  finished  the  drawing,  Mr.  Duysters  died.  Soon 
afterward  he  purported  to  communicate  through  Miss  De  Camp, 
and  one  day  she  heard  a  voice  say,  “  Fetch  the  picture  and  I  will 
finish  it.”  Miss  De  Camp  got  it  and  taking  her  pencil  automatically 
finished  the  picture.  She  drew  a  double  tree  on  the  stump,  drew 
the  pot  and  hook  used  for  cooking  their  meals,  drew  the  dishes  on 
the  rectangular  outline  which  represented  the  table  cloth,  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  which  she  had  not  noticed  in  the  drawing,  finished  the  fir 
tree,  put  in  the  stones,  bank  and  lines  for  the  water  in  the  stream, 
inserted  the  spokes  in  the  circles  for  the  wheels,  drew  the  fourth 
wheel,  and  behind  the  wagon  made  a  tree  to  which  they  had  hitched 
the  horse.  I  had  all  this,  picture  and  all,  in  my  files  before  I  took 
Miss  De  Camp  to  the  sitting. 

But  Mr.  Duysters  and  the  drawing  and  the  scene  itself  were  so 
well  known  to  Miss  De  Camp  that  I  could  attach  no  evidential  value 
to  the  communication  from  him  and  the  finishing  of  the  picture 
through  Miss  De  Camp.  However,  he  appeared  through  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  and  gave  his  full  name,  George  F.  Duysters;  and,  as 
soon  as  this  was  done  and  because  it  was  the  last  sitting,  I  at  once 
put  to  him  a  query  to  see  if  I  could  get  a  reaction  bearing  more 
completely  on  his  personal  identity,  with  the  following  result. 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


199 


(Do  you  remember  drawing  a  picture  for  the  lady?) 

'  “  Yes,  I  do,  and  I  will  try  and  do  more  some  time.  I  have  to  have  more 
exact  conditions,  more  than  some,  but  I  can  work  at  some  places  and  some 
times.” 

(Yes,  what  was  that  picture?) 

“  Trees  and  water,  you  know,  and  that  is  the  sort  I  like.  It  was  an  illus¬ 
tration  of  a  time  and  place  of  other  days.  I  will  come  again  to  her  and 
here  also,  but  I  cannot  stay  now.  I  finished  it.  Yes  I  finished  it,  the 
picture,  I  mean.” 

(I  understand  perfectly.) 

“  I  thought  you  meant  the  name,  George  F.  Duysters.” 

It  is  especially  significant  that  both  personalities  should  appear 
to  communicate.  They  are  not  in  any  way  connected  with  each 
other  in  life,  and  neither  of  them  were  relatives  of  Miss  De 
Camp. 

There  is  another  complicated  incident  which  is  practically  an 
instance  of  cross-reference,  but  is  quoted  here  because  of  its  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  associated  physical  phenomena,  and  the  difficulties  of  ex¬ 
plaining  it  by  the  telepathic  hypothesis. 

I  had  given  a  lady  some  sittings  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  The 
first  four  of  them  were  quite  unsatisfactory.  This  was  in  Decem¬ 
ber,  1912.  The  fourth  sitting  was  on  Monday.  On  Tuesday 
morning  I  was  awakened  in  my  hotel  by  hearing  raps  on  the  head- 
board  of  the  bed  in  which  I  was  sleeping.  I  suspected  that  the 
noise  was  made  by  my  breathing  or  heart  action  on  the  springs 
of  the  bed,  though  I  had  never  heard  them  before  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  I  had  slept  for  years  in  that  bed.  I  determined  to  test  the 
matter  and  lay  perfectly  still,  trying  not  to  move  a  muscle,  and  at 
intervals  stopping  and  starting  my  breathing.  When  I  discovered 
that  the  raps  often  continued  when  I  had  stopped  breathing  and 
stopped  at  times  though  the  breathing  went  on,  I  saw  that  the 
breathing  was  not  the  cause  of  them.  I  then  asked  a  mental 
question:  “Is  any  one  rapping?”  There  immediately  followed 
three  loud  raps,  the  second  and  third  having  a  very  short  interval. 
I  then  again  asked  a  mental  question :  “  Will  you  spell  out  a  mes¬ 

sage?”  The  answer  was  a  whole  volley  of  raps  on  the  bureau 
ten  feet  distant.  They  could  not  have  been  produced  by  my  breath¬ 
ing  or  heart  action,  I  then  began  slowly  to  go  over  the  alphabet 


200  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


mentally;  that  is,  without  saying  the  letters  aloud.  When  I  reached 
certain  letters  there  was  a  single  distinct  rap;  this  occurred  at  the 
letters  which  spelled  cat.  When  this  was  done  the  raps  ceased. 

In  the  morning  I  wrote  out  an  account  of  what  had  happened, 
and  then  experimented  on  the  bed,  first  by  lying  down  on  it  and 
shaking  my  body  in  various  ways  to  see  if  I  could  produce  sim¬ 
ilar  noises  on  the  springs;  but  I  totally  failed  to  produce  any  such 
sounds.  I  then  kneaded  the  bed  with  my  hands  in  every  direction, 
and  failed  again.  I  then  tapped  on  the  headboard  of  the  bed  with 
my  knuckles,  and  obtained  exactly  the  same  quality  of  sound  that 
had  occurred  in  the  raps.  I  wrote  out  these  facts  in  the  record. 

On  the  way  to  the  sitting  I  told  the  lady  what  had  happened;  she 
showed  decided  interest,  but  did  not  tell  me  why.  Arriving  at  the 
place  for  the  sitting,  the  sitter,  as  usual,  waited  down  stairs  until 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  had  gone  into  the  trance,  and  was  then  admitted. 
In  the  subliminal  stage  of  the  trance,  Mrs.  Chenoweth  saw  an  ap¬ 
parition  of  Dr.  Hodgson.  He  lingered,  and  as  I  had  not  heard 
from  him  for  a  long  time,  I  bethought  myself  that  he  had  some 
reason  for  appearing.  I  therefore  asked  him,  through  the  psychic, 
of  course,  if  he  wanted  to  say  anything;  the  answer  was,  that  he 
and  G.  P.  were  trying  to  “  give  undeniable  proof  of  identity  to  his 
mother  and  some  post  mortem  facts  which  would  clear  up  the 
mystery."  The  pronoun  “  his  "  was  the  first  intimation  of  person¬ 
ality  at  this  series  of  sittings,  and  referred,  as  later  allusions  show, 
to  the  deceased  son,  from  whom  the  sitter  wanted  to  hear.  I  then 
asked  Dr.  Hodgson  if  “  he  knew  whether  any  one  was  in  my  room 
last  night  ” ;  the  answer  was,  that  he  himself  had  been  there,  but 
“  was  merely  a  spectator  of  a  manifestation  made  by  Jennie  P.,  one 
of  the  controls.”  The  subconscious  then  got  the  impression  that 
some  moving  object  was  involved,  and,  though  this  impression  was 
wrong,  I  did  not  correct  it.  Automatic  writing  then  followed. 
After  preliminaries,  the  communicator  said  “  the  boy  was  there," 
meaning  in  the  room,  and  said  he  wanted  to  do  so  much.  But  Dr. 
Hodgson  did  not  succeed  in  telling  me  exactly  what  had  happened. 
In  a  few  moments  the  control  evidently  changed  and  I  got  the 
words:  “Was  ich  eine  mutter,"  [What  I  a  mother]  and  my  de¬ 
ceased  wife  followed  with  the  statement ;  “  I  thought  I  could  write 


EXPERIMENTAL  INCIDENTS 


201 


something  myself.”  She  knew  German  well;  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did 
not  know  it  at  all.  Then  there  was  again  a  change  of  control  and 
the  boy  began  communicating  in  the  automatic  writing.  He  soon 
wrote:  “  I  knew  if  I  could  knock  or  rap  then  that  you  would  take 
notice  and  it  would  be  a  good  evidential  .  .  .  and  then  went  on 
making  allusion  to  the  noises  and  their  purpose.  In  a  few  mo¬ 
ments  came  the  following  words:  “Was  ich  die  Katzie,”  imper¬ 
fect  German  for  “  what  I  the  cats.”  The  boy  also  had  known 
German,  I  learned  later,  but  the  mother,  not  knowing  it,  did  not 
appreciate  this  allusion  until  it  was  converted  immediately  into 
English  by  the  communicator,  who  added :  “  I  thought  you  would 

see  [that]  the  meaning  of  any  unusual  sound  was  always  the  cat.” 
The  sitter  at  once  broke  down  sobbing,  as  she  saw  the  point,  but 
did  not  explain  a  feature  in  the  incident  which  I  did  not  know  at 
the  time.  After  we  left  the  house  she  told  me  that  for  the  previous 
two  months  and  for  the  first  time  in  her  life,  she  had  been  so  deeply 
interested  in  cats  that  her  petting  them  and  giving  them  catnip  on 
the  street  had  brought  them  into  trouble  with  the  police  who,  think¬ 
ing  they  had  hydrophobia,  had  taken  them  to  the  pound.  She  had 
never  before  had  any  interest  in  cats. 

I  then  told  her  that,  years  before,  when  I  had  stayed  all  night 
at  her  home  in  a  Western  city,  I  had  been  awakened  in  the  morning 
by  hearing  raps  on  my  pillow,  and  that  I  turned  over  and  over  again 
to  stop  them,  without  success.  I  added  that  I  had  written  out  an 
account  of  the  facts  and  filed  it  without  telling  her  about  the  inci¬ 
dent.  She  admitted  that  I  had  not  told  her,  and  added  that  the 
boy  had  died  in  that  room  —  a  fact,  of  course,  which  I  did  not 
know. 

The  complex  interest  of  these  facts  is  apparent  without  explana¬ 
tion  on  my  part,  except  that  we  can  hardly  account  for  the  raps  in 
my  room  at  the  hotel  by  telepathy,  and  we  cannot  accuse  the  medium 
of  fraud  without  implicating  myself  as  in  collusion  with  her.  The 
sitter  will  testify  that  I  did  not  know  of  her  interest  in  cats,  so  that 
it  appears  as  if  the  interest  itself  had  been  instigated  on  the  other 
side  and  the  rest  of  the  phenomena  planned  to  get  results  which 
would  prove  to  the  sitter’s  suspicious  mind  —  for  she  was  very 
suspicious  —  that  the  facts  would  have  no  easy  explanation.  The 


202  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

chief  interest  of  the  incident  is  just  that  fact.  It  does  not  prove 
the  personal  identity  of  the  boy.  It  proves  only  the  association 
of  mental  and  physical  phenomena,  unless  you  wish  to  regard  the 
raps  as  hallucinatory.  I  should  not  object  to  that.  They  sys¬ 
tematically  spelled  out  the  word  cat,  and  were  veridical,  as  the  ex¬ 
periment  at  cross-reference  showed;  as  hallucinations  they  would 
have  the  same  evidential  import  as  genuine  physical  phenomena, 
in  so  far  as  spiritistic  explanations  are  concerned.  The  main  point 
is  their  complexity  and  the  difficulty  of  normal  explanation. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


The  present  chapter  will  summarize  a  set  of  phenomena 
which  I  have  usually  described  as  the  “  Thompson  Gif¬ 
ford  Case.”  It  is  not  necessary  to  regard  it  as  giving  a 
final  solution  of  the  problems  which  it  suggests;  it  is  presented 
here  for  the  sake  of  its  psychological  interest  and  any  other  con¬ 
clusion  which  it  may  help  to  establish.  The  case  came  to  my  at¬ 
tention  in  the  manner  described  below ;  in  giving  the  account  of  it 
I  shall  follow  the  chronological  order  of  events. 

Some  time  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1905,  Mr.  Frederic  L. 
Thompson,  who  was  a  goldsmith,  not  an  artist,  was  suddenly  and 
inexplicably  seized  with  an  impulse  to  sketch  and  paint  pictures. 
Accompanying  this  impulse  were  numerous  hallucinations  or  visions 
of  trees  and  landscapes  which  served  as  models  for  his  work. 

Mr.  Thompson  had  had  no  training  in  art.  He  had  obtained 
only  the  slight  education  which  the  public  schools  give  a  boy  until 
he  was  thirteen  years  of  age.  He  had  had  a  few  lessons  in  draw¬ 
ing,  such  as  the  public  school  give.  He  then  had  to  go  to  work, 
and  was  employed  as  an  apprentice  at  engraving.  He  served  at 
this  work  for  some  years.  His  employers  discovered  that  he  had 
some  taste  at  sketching,  and  the  foreman  of  the  department  en¬ 
couraged  this  as  a  means  of  helping  Mr.  Thompson  at  his  engrav¬ 
ing.  While  employed  at  this  task,  Mr.  Thompson  formed  what 
may  be  called  a  partnership  with  an  artist  to  turn  photographs  into 
oils.  Mr.  Thompson  did  none  of  the  finishing;  his  partner,  Mr. 
Macy,  executed  the  artistic  work  of  the  paintings.  Only  a  few 
photographs  were  finished  in  this  manner,  as  the  work  did  not 
prove  remunerative.  This  was  the  last  of  Mr.  Thompson’s  ex¬ 
periences  with  anything  like  painting  until,  in  the  summer  of  1905, 
the  impulse  seized  him  to  sketch  and  paint.  The  meantime  was 

203 


204  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

spent  in  his  work  as  a  goldsmith,  which  he  took  up  in  New  York 
City  after  he  left  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts.  His  experience 
with  turning  photographs  into  oils  had  taken  place  a  number  of 
years  before. 

It  is  apparent  that  he  had  had  no  education  nor  important  ex¬ 
perience  in  painting,  so  that  whatever  merits  his  painting  may  have 
do  not  represent  the  usual  result  of  education  and  practice.  When 
he  was  seized  with  the  impulse  to  sketch  and  paint  he  seemed  to  lose 
his  interest  in  the  work  of  a  goldsmith  and  began  to  show  some 
unusual  powers  as  an  artist  in  oils.  While  he  did  this  work  he 
often  felt  that  he  was  Mr.  Gifford,  Robert  Swain  Gifford,  and  re¬ 
marked  to  his  wife  at  times,  “  Gifford  wants  to  sketch.”  He  did 
not  know  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Gifford  was  dead.  He  had  some 
years  before  been  slightly  acquainted  with  Mr.  Gifford,  having  met 
him  once  or  twice  on  the  marshes  about  New  Bedford  while  Mr. 
Gifford  was  sketching  there,  Mr.  Thompson  himself  being  out 
hunting.  He  talked  with  him  a  few  minutes  only  on  one  of  these 
occasions,  and  on  the  others  merely  saw  him  sketching.  Once  he 
called  on  Mr.  Gifford  in  New  York  to  show  him  some  jewelry,  but 
saw  nothing  more  of  him. 

Between  the  period  indicated,  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1905, 
and  the  latter  part  of  January,  1906,  Mr.  Thompson  kept  on  at  his 
sketching  and  painting.  In  the  latter  part  of  January  he  saw 
notice  of  an  exhibition  of  the  late  R.  Swain  Gifford’s  paintings  at 
the  American  Art  Galleries  and  went  in  to  see  them.  He  learned 
at  this  time  and  not  before,  that  Mr.  Gifford  was  dead.  Mr.  Gif¬ 
ford  had  died  on  January  15,  1905,  some  six  months  before  the 
impulse  seized  Mr.  Thompson  to  sketch  and  paint.  While  looking 
at  Mr.  Gifford’s  paintings  on  exhibition  he  seemed  to  hear  a  voice, 
apparently  issuing  from  the  invisible,  say,  “  You  see  what  I  have 
done.  Can  you  not  take  up  and  finish  my  work?  ”  This  incident 
may  be  treated  as  an  hallucination  or  as  a  fabrication,  unless  evi¬ 
dence  can  be  produced  to  make  it  credible.  Whether  genuine  or 
not  it  had  sufficient  influence  on  the  mind  of  Mr.  Thompson  to 
induce  him  to  go  on  with  his  sketching  and  painting.  From  this 
time  on  the  impulse  to  paint  was  stronger,  and  between  this  date 
and  the  next  year  he  produced  a  number  of  paintings  of  artistic 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD  205 

merit  sufficient  to  demand  a  fair  price  on  their  artistic  qualities  alone, 
his  story  being  concealed  from  all  but  his  wife. 

In  January,  1907,  Mr.  Thompson  came  to  me  with  the  fear  that 
his  visions  and  hallucinations  were  threatening  his  sanity.  He  had 
been  constantly  the  subject  of  them  ever  since  he  saw  the  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  Gifford  pictures,  and  a  scene  of  gnarled  oak  trees  haunted 
him  perpetually,  with  the  strong  impulse  to  paint  them.  He  drew 
several  sketches  of  them,  but  the  insistence  of  these  visions  made 
him  begin  to  doubt  the  normal  condition  of  his  mind.  I  interro¬ 
gated  him  for  two  hours  on  all  aspects  of  his  e.xperiences,  which 
included  the  story  just  told.  As  I  saw  no  evidence  of  anything 
supernormal  in  the  account,  I  diagnosed  it  as  disintegrating  per¬ 
sonality,  that  is,  some  type  of  hallucination  and  a  symptom  of 
mental  disturbance.  I  advised  him  not  to  continue  the  work  of 
painting,  but  to  go  on  with  his  vocation  as  goldsmith,  as  I  could 
not  see  any  reason  to  believe  that  he  could  well  earn  his  living  in 
painting,  especially  if  he  had  to  explain  how  he  did  his  work.  Be¬ 
sides,  I  feared  that  the  tendency,  if  not  due  to  morbid  mental  condi¬ 
tions,  would  not  last.  But,  since  it  would  require  time  to  prove 
whether  the  case  was  one  of  morbid  hallucinations,  and  since  we 
might  never  know,  until  an  autopsy  would  show,  what  the  real 
trouble  was,  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  might  take  a  shorter  path  for 
finding  out  what  was  the  trouble.  The  incident  of  hearing  a 
voice  in  the  American  Art  Galleries  suggested  that  view  of  the 
case  which  many  instances  on  record  in  the  publications  of  the 
English  Society  for  Psychical  Research  indicate,  namely,  the  hy¬ 
pothesis  that  the  dead  may  occasionally  intrude  their  influence 
upon  the  living.  There  was  no  evidence  of  this  in  the  story  of 
the  voice  as  Mr.  Thompson  narrated  it.  But  I  saw  that  an  in¬ 
teresting  set  of  alternatives  was  placed  before  me.  I  had  no  way 
of  proving  that  his  visions  and  the  voice  were  purely  subjective 
hallucinations  without  waiting,  possibly  for  years,  to  watch  their 
development.  On  the  other  hand,  it  suddenly  came  into  my  mind 
that  I  might  test  the  matter  in  a  very  simple  manner.  I  thought 
that,  if  the  hallucinations  were  really  inspired  by  the  source  appar¬ 
ently  claimed  for  them,  I  ought  to  get  traces  of  Mr.  Gififord  through 
a  medium.  If  I  did  not  get  any  trace  of  him  the  presumption 


2o6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


would  be  all  the  stronger  that  the  phenomena  were  ordinary  and 
not  supernormal.  As  a  consequence  I  asked  Mr.  Thompson  if  he 
had  ever  seen  or  consulted  a  medium.  He  replied  that  he  had  not 
and  that  he  always  despised  the  subject  of  spiritualism,  laughing  at 
it  with  others.  I  further  asked  if  he  would  go  with  me  to  a  medium, 
and  he  replied  in  the  affirmative. 

This  was  on  January  i6,  1907.  I  immediately  arranged  for  a 
sitting  to  take  place  on  the  second  evening  after  this,  the  i8th.  I 
did  not  tell  Mr.  Thompson  whom  he  was  to  see  nor  where  we  were 
going.  I  had  him  meet  me  at  my  house  at  a  suitable  hour  and 
took  him  to  a  medium  whom  I  here  call  Mrs.  Rathbun.  I  intro¬ 
duced  him  as  Mr.  Smith  and  took  the  notes  myself,  also  requiring 
Mr.  Thompson  not  to  say  anything  and  not  to  ask  any  questions 
until  I  signified  permission.  In  a  few  minutes  after  we  sat  down 
the  medium  apparently  described  some  one  whom  Mr.  Thompson 
recognized  as  his  grandmother,  the  evidence  not  being  of  the  kind 
to  assure  any  one  of  its  genuineness,  and  then  allusion  was  made 
to  a  man  behind  him  who  was  said  to  be  fond  of  painting.  No  hint 
whatever  had  been  given  of  either  Mr.  Thompson’s  character  or  the 
nature  of  his  experiences.  Mr.  Gifford  was  described  in  terms 
recognizable  by  Mr.  Thompson,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  locality 
of  Mr.  Gifford’s  birth  was  described,  and  a  group  of  oak  trees,  even 
to  the  fallen  branches  and  the  color  of  the  leaves  that  had  ap¬ 
peared  in  his  apparitions.  The  communicator  said  that  it  was  a 
place  near  the  ocean,  that  it  was  not  England,  but  that  you  had  to 
take  a  boat  to  the  locality.  It  was  this  group  of  trees  that  had 
haunted  Mr.  Thompson’s  vision  for  eighteen  months,  and  that  he 
had  described  in  our  conversation  two  evenings  before.  The  real 
group  was  afterward  found  in  the  locality  described.  It  was  on 
one  of  the  Elizabeth  Islands  on  the  New  England  coast.  (See  Fig. 
III.) 

The  outcome  of  this  experiment  pacified  Mr.  Thompson’s  mind 
and  relieved  my  own,  as  to  the  cause  of  his  hallucinations,  and  he 
resolved  to  go  on  with  his  painting.  Before  this  time  he  had 
painted  only  six  or  eight  pictures,  but  had  a  large  number  of  sketches, 
rather  crude,  all  of  them,  sketches  and  paintings,  being  based  on 
his  visions.  Without  telling  the  story  of  his  experiences,  he 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


207 


showed  some  of  his  paintings  to  a  few  persons  interested  in  art  and 
sold  two  or  three  of  them.  One  he  sold  to  Mr.  James  B.  Townsend 
on  its  merits  and  without  telling  his  story.  In  the  course  of  his 
examination  of  the  picture,  Mr.  Townsend  remarked  that  the  paint¬ 
ing  resembled  those  of  R.  Swain  Gifford ;  Mr.  Thompson  then  told 
him  something  of  his  story.  Soon  afterwards  he  sold  another 
painting,  under  similar  circumstances,  to  Dr.  Alfred  Muller,  who 
was  pleased  with  the  excellence  of  the  work.  This  experience, 
with  the  encouragement  offered  by  my  experiment  with  the  psychic, 
led  him  to  continue  serving  the  impulse  which  haunted  him. 

While  Mr.  Thompson  went  on  with  his  work  I  resolved  to  make 
a  second  mediumistic  experiment.  I  was  experimenting  at  the  time 
with  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  and  brought  Mr.  Thompson  to  a  sitting. 
He  was  not  admitted  to  the  room  until  after  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had 
gone  into  the  trance,  and  left  it  before  she  came  out  of  the  trance, 
so  that  at  no  time  in  her  normal  state  did  she  see  or  hear  him.  At 
this  first  sitting  some  twenty  incidents  of  a  coincidental  character 
were  told,  many  of  them  bearing  on  the  personal  identity  of  Mr. 
Gifford.  Among  them  was  a  reference  to  his  fondness  for  rugs 
and  rich  and  flesh  colors,  a  reference  to  a  tarpaulin  which  it  was 
his  habit  to  wear  when  boating  and  painting,  and  more  or  less 
definite  accounts  of  his  relation  to  Mr.  Thompson,  the  sitter.  The 
latter  could  not  be  given  any  important  evidential  value,  as  some 
things  were  said,  or  implied  by  Mr.  Thompson’s  questions,  which 
might  have  suggested  this  influence  to  the  subconsciousness  of  the 
medium.  The  facts  mentioned  about  Mr.  Gifford’s  private  habits 
are  more  suggestive ;  but  there  were  incidents  even  more  pertinent 
than  these.  Reference  was  made  to  his  sudden  death,  his  unfinished 
work,  to  the  condition  of  his  studio,  to  apparently  the  same  woman 
who  had  appeared  in  the  experiment  with  Mrs.  Rathbun,  to  misty 
scenes,  which  were  a  favorite  with  Mr.  Gifford,  and  finally  to  the 
same  group  of  trees  and  their  locality  mentioned  above.  This 
passage  should  be  quoted. 

Mr.  Thompson  said  to  the  psychic:  “  There  is  a  picture  of  an 
old  group  of  trees  near  tlw  ocean.  I  would  like  to  get  it.  Can 
you  see  it?  ”  He  had  reference  to  his  vision  as  before  described, 
and  said  too  much  about  it  for  any  details  to  have  evidential  value. 


2o8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Mr.  Thompson  thought  that  possibly  Mr.  Gififord  had  painted  sucli 
a  picture,  but  he  wanted  to  find  where  the  trees  could  be  found  that 
he  might  paint  them  himself.  He  assumed  rightly  enough  that,  if 
Mr.  Gifford  were  actually  present,  he  might  tell  where  the  trees 
could  be  found  and  something  about  them.  The  following  was  the 
result  of  the  inquiry,  taken  down  by  a  stenographer  at  the  time, 
the  matter  in  parentheses  representing  what  Mr,  Thompson  said : 

“  Do  you  think  that  it  is  one  that  he  is  giving  you  ?  ” 

(I  think  it  is,  yes.  I  feel  that  I  must  go  out  into  nature  and  paint  those 
trees.)  ' 

“  I  want  to  tell  you,  little  boy,  I  think  he  has  seen  the  trees  and  I  think 
he  is  giving  you  the  picture  of  it.  I  think  you  will  see  them  too.  I  don’t 
know  the  place,  but  it  looks  like  that  to  me.  When  you  go  up  here  on  this 
hill,  as  I  told  you  about,  and  ocean  in  front  of  you  it  will  be  to  your  left, 
and  you  will  go  down  a  little  incline,  almost  a  gulley,  and  then  up  a  little 
bit  and  a  jut  out.  This  is  just  the  way  it  seems.  Now  you  have  this  so 
that  you  can  follow,  can’t  you?  They  look  like  gnarled  old  trees.  There 
is  one  that  stands  up  quite  straight,  and  some  roots  that  you  can  see,  not 
dead,  but  part  dead.  Some  are  roots  and  gnarled  and  then  the  rest.  They 
are  nice.” 

(Beautiful  coloring.) 

“  O,  beautiful !  But  that  is  what  you  will  get  if  you  are  right  on  the 
spot.  You  will  get  those  soft  colors,  just  like  this  old  rug,  that  he  likes  very 
much  that  has  some  soft  colors.” 

When  the  group  of  trees  was  finally  found  it  was  proved  that 
this  description  was  perfectly  accurate,  though  it  probably  would 
not  have  led  any  one  to  either  the  locality  or  the  special  scene. 
The  account  supplements  that  given  by  Mrs.  Rathbun.  When  fac¬ 
ing  the  sound  or  ocean  one  had  the  group  of  trees  on  the  left,  and 
had  to  go  down  a  little  gulley  to  reach  them.  They  were  gnarled 
oak  trees  and  standing  as  described.  There  were  no  dead  roots 
nor  partly  dead  roots  visible.  But  there  was  near  the  ground  one 
dead  limb  which  resembled  a  very  crooked  root  of  a  tree.  It  is 
represented  in  Figure  VIII.  The  trees  were  situated  on  a  little 
promontory  and  so  a  “  jut  out.”  When  painted  in  the  autumn 
the  trees  had  colored  leaves  of  the  red  and  brown  tones  which  were 
favorites  of  Mr.  Gifford.  The  rug  alluded  to,  Mr.  Thompson 
found  at  the  foot  of  Mr.  Gifford’s  easel ;  it  contained  the  same  colors 
as  the  leaves  in  the  autumn  scene  which  he  painted  of  these  trees. 


THO:^IPSON- GIFFORD  CASE 


Figure  II 


Figure  III 


Figure  IV 


Figure  V 


Figure  VI 


Figure  VII 


Figure  VIII 


Sketch  from  hallucination 


Photograph  from  actual  scene 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD  209 

A  few  things  were  said  that  were  pertinent  to  Mr.  Thompson  and 
that  did  not  bear  upon  the  identity  of  the  dead.  They  assumed 
an  influence  over  Mr.  Thompson.  For  instance,  Mr.  Thompson 
was  told  that  he  would  go  out  to  the  place  where  the  trees  were  and 
paint  them  and  that  he  would  return  when  the  weather  was  “  crisp 
and  cool.”  He  did  find  the  trees  and  after  painting  them  returned 
to  New  York  in  December,  in  the  “  cool  and  crisp  ”  weather  indi¬ 
cated.  This  fulfilment  of  the  prediction,  however,  may  be  regarded 
as  the  result  of  suggestion. 

But  I  have  somewhat  anticipated  the  story.  I  desired,  however, 
to  explain  the  incident  of  the  trees,  and  to  call  attention  to  the  facte 
which,  in  this  first  sitting,  gave  encouragement  to  pursue  both  the 
investigation  and  the  painting.  It  is  noticeable  that  these  first  sit¬ 
tings  give  evidence  of  supernormal  information;  and,  as  they  took 
place  under  test  conditions,  we  do  not  have  to  raise  the  issue  of 
the  mediums’  character.  No  hint  of  the  communicator’s  name  was 
given  by  either  psychic.  One  or  two  pertinent  names  were  given, 
but  no  special  importance  could  be  attached  to  them. 

These  results  sustained  the  hypothesis  which  the  first  experiment 
with  Mrs.  Rathbun  suggested,  and  Mr.  Thompson  resolved  to  hunt 
up  the  scenes  of  his  visions  or  hallucinations  and  to  paint  them.  On 
the  second  of  July,  1907,  he,  therefore,  put  into  my  hands  a  num¬ 
ber  of  sketches  which  he  had  made  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1905.  I  wrote  a  note  to  that  effect  and  locked  them  up  in  my  files. 
Mr.  Thompson  first  went  to  Nonquitt,  Massachusetts,  where  he 
expected  to  find  the  scenes  which  had  haunted  his  visions.  He 
states  that  he  had  known  nothing  about  this  place,  except  that  it 
was  the  summer  home  of  Mr.  Gifford.  It  is  situated  near  his  own 
old  home  in  New  Bedford,  but  is  inaccessible  except  by  boat.  Mr. 
Thompson  found  a  few  of  the  scenes  of  his  visions  and  took  photo¬ 
graphs  of  them,  but  ascertained  that  Mr.  Gifford’s  favorite  haunt 
was  one  of  the  Elizabeth  Islands.  He  then  resolved  to  go  out  to 
the  islands  and  to  make  an  attempt  to  verify  his  apparitions.  But, 
as  fortune  would  have  it,  Mrs.  Gifford  took  him  into  the  studio  of 
Mr.  Gifford,  which  had  not  been  greatly  altered  since  his  death  two 
and  a  half  years  before.  To  his  surprise,  he  saw  on  the  easel  an 
unfinished  sketch,  which  was  identical  with  one  of  the  sketches 


210  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


left  in  my  hands  more  than  a  month  before.  He  said  in  his  diary 
at  the  time  that  it  almiost  took  his  breath  away  to  see  the  identity 
of  this  painting  with  his  visions  and  sketches.  The  reader  may  ob¬ 
serve  this  resemblance  himself  by  comparing  Figures  I  and  II. 
There  were  on  easels  two  other  pictures  identical  with  sketches 
which  he  had  made,  but  which  had  not  been  left  with  me. 

The  case  does  not  wholly  depend  on  the  veracity  of  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son.  He  had  left  the  sketch  in  my  hands  before  he  saw  the  paint¬ 
ing  by  Mr.  Gifford.  Mrs.  Gifford  testifies  that  the  picture  was 
rolled  up  and  put  away  until  after  Mr.  Gifford’s  death,  when  it 
was  taken  out  and  put  on  the  easel.  Mr.  Thompson  had  had  no 
opportunity  to  see  it,  and  his  impulse  to  paint  did  not  arise  until 
six  months  after  Mr.  Gifford’s  death. 

Mr.  Thompson  then  went  out  to  the  islands  and  accidentally  on 
the  island  of  Nashawena  came  upon  the  exact  scene  of  this  pic¬ 
ture  by  Mr.  Gifford,  and  painted  it.  He  had  never  been  on  this 
island  before  and  hence  had  never  seen  this  particular  view. 

In  his  rambles  over  another  of  the  islands,  whose  name  I  am 
not  permitted  by  the  owner  to  give,  Mr.  Thompson  found  a  large 
number  of  scenes  that  had  appeared  in  his  visions.  He  states, 
and  the  evidence  is  fairly  conclusive,  that  he  had  never  before  been 
on  this  island.  It  is  extremely  difficult  for  visitors  to  get  to  the 
island  without  a  permit,  and  Mr.  Thompson  had  to  obtain  one  to 
visit  it.  He  painted  several  pictures  of  actual  scenes  which  he  had 
seen  in  his  visions,  and  some  of  which  he  had  sketched  from  his 
visions  before  he  visited  the  islands.  Among  these  is  a  peculiar 
group  of  trees.  He  stumbled  upon  them  in  his  wanderings  about 
this  island  and  had  started  to  sketch  them,  when  he  heard  a  voice 
similar  to  the  one  he  had  heard  at  the  art  gallery  say:  “  Go  and 
look  on  the  other  side  of  the  tree.”  Though  some  sixty  feet  away 
he  went  forward  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  tree  found 
the  initials  of  Mr.  Gifford  carved  in  the  bark  of  a  beach  tree  in 
1902. 

I  photographed  the  initials  about  two  months  later  and  they  had 
long  grown  up  and  could  not  have  been  cut  by  Mr.  Thompson. 

Finally  in  October  he  accidentally  found  the  group  of  gnarled 
oak  trees  described  by  both  psychics,  and  painted  it.  He  had  put 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


211 


into  my  hands  a  sketch  of  the  trees  seen  in  his  visions,  as  remarked, 
on  the  previous  second  of  July  (Figure  III). 

The  next  problem  was  for  me  to  find  these  trees  and  photograph 
them  myself.  The  story  of  their  finding  should  be  told  in  some 
detail,  as  the  facts  tend  to  make  the  whole  incident  more  evidential 
than  it  would  otherwise  be. 

After  some  directions  as  to  where  I  should  find  the  group  of 
trees,  said  to  be  near  or  in  the  edge  of  what  is  called  the  Black 
Woods,  I  went  out  to  the  island.  I  found  the  place,  but  no  tree 
like  those  desired.  There  were  plenty  of  gnarled  oaks  and  storm 
blown  trees  of  all  kinds,  and  one  group  of  trees  which  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son  had  painted,  but  no  group  representing  any  specific  resemblance 
to  Figures  III  and  IV,  save  in  isolated  details.  I  photographed  a 
few  trees,  thinking  that  perhaps  Mr.  Thompson  had  put  trees  from 
various  localities  together  and  had  made  an  idealized  picture.  The 
specific  points  of  his  sketch  and  painting,  however,  were  not  found 
in  what  I  had  photographed.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Thompson  saw  the 
photographs  he  said  that  they  did  not  represent  the  scene  he  had 
painted  and  that  the  trees  he  had  found  were  all  together  just  as 
painted.  I  therefore  took  him  with  me  on  a  second  trip  to  the 
island,  and  we  went  to  the  same  spot.  We  found  the  group  of 
trees  which  he  said  would  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  place  where  the 
desired  group  was  to  be  found.  But  there  was  no  trace  of  the 
trees  we  were  searching  for.  There  was  nothing  but  a  sand- 
waste.  We  had  to  give  up  the  search  and  return  home. 

The  third  trip  was  more  successful  and  contained  some  interest¬ 
ing  episodes.  On  the  second  trip,  when  he  failed  to  find  the  trees, 
I  remarked  to  Mr.  Thompson  that  he  must  have  painted  the  picture 
from  an  hallucination;  but  his  reply  was,  that  this  was  impossible, 
because  he  had  carved  his  initials  on  one  of  the  trees.  He  con¬ 
jectured  that  he  might  have  painted  it  on  the  north  shore  of  the 
island,  as  the  day  in  question  was  stormy  and  foggy.  We  made 
the  third  trip  on  order  to  investigate  this  north  shore.  We  in¬ 
vestigated  this  shore  for  two  or  three  miles  and  examined  every  tree 
and  group  of  trees,  but  there  was  not  a  trace  of  any  single  tree  or 
group  of  trees  that  had  any  specific  resemblances  to  the  desired 
scene.  Nor  was  the  shore  itself  sufficiently  like  that  needed  for  a 


212  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


technical  resemblance.  There  were  gnarled  oaks  in  plenty,  but 
nothing  that  suggested  the  picture.  We  then  resolved  to  sail  around 
the  island  into  Vineyard  Sound  and  examine  a  small  group  of  trees 
not  investigated  on  the  second  trip. 

Before  leaving  New  York,  Mr.  Thompson  said  to  me  that  he  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  could  never  find  the  trees  by  him¬ 
self,  and  went  to  consult  a  psychic,  a  lady  whom  I  personally  know 
well  and  who  is  not  a  professional  in  the  usual  sense  of  that  term. 
She  told  him  the  following,  which  Mr.  Thompson  wrote  out  from 
memory  for  me  before  the  steamer  left  the  dock  in  New  York;  I 
had  the  record  in  my  possession  from  that  time  on. 

“  I  see  the  trees.  They  are  on  a  rounding  bank.  The  land  slopes  down. 
One  limb  is  not  there.  It  has  blown  away  or  been  struck  by  lightning.  It 
changes  the  appearance  of  the  tree.” 

(Do  you  see  any  landmarks  by  which  I  can  locate  them?) 

“  The  water  bends  around  quickly  and  beyond  is  where  men  have  been 
at  work.  I  see  something  like  a  round  building.  I  can’t  see  what  it  is: 
it  may  be  used  for  cattle  or  a  bridge,  like  a  rustic  bridge.  In  front  is  a 
cleared  place,  then  trees  beyond.” 

(On  what  part  of  the  island  is  it?) 

”  You  face  the  rising  sun.  I  see  houses  near  it.  It  is  not  exactly  east, 
when  you  face  the  rising  sun:  it  is  on  your  left  hand.” 

(Are  there  trees  near  it?) 

“  When  you  stand  on  the  bridge  and  face  south  they  are  on  the  left 
hand.” 

The  reader  may  remark  some  resemblance  to  the  statement  by 
Mrs.  Chenoweth,  which  I  have  quoted  above.  I  shall  not  take  the 
time  or  space  to  discuss  details.  But  after  we  had  examined  the 
north  shore  of  the  island  we  sailed  into  Hadley  Bay  and  anchored 
there,  taking  a  row  boat  with  the  purpose  of  going  into  Vineyard 
Sound,  and  in  trying  to  row  under  a  bridge  found  the  tide  coming 
in  so  strong  that  we  could  not  get  through.  Mr.  Thompson  threw 
his  codt  upon  the  bridge  and  helped  us  to  carry  the  boat  around  and 
into  the  water.  He  went  back  for  his  coat,  but  instead  of  getting 
it  took  his  stand  on  the  bridge,  facing  east,  and,  ignoring  three 
separate  calls  to  get  his  coat  and  come  on,  he  seemed  to  go  into  a 
sort  of  trance.  Soon  he  ran  down  the  bridge,  leaving  his  coat  there 
for  some  one  else  to  get,  and  ran  with  all  his  might  around  the  shore 
to  a  small  promontory,  shouting  back  that  he  had  found  the  trees. 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


213 

He  threw  into  the  air  the  old  grocery  box  which  he  had  said  before 
leaving  New  York  that  we  would  or  ought  to  find  on  the  spot  where 
the  trees  were.  Mr.  Thompson’s  initials  were  on  one  of  the  trees. 

We  then  photographed  the  trees  and  the  shore.  They  are  repre¬ 
sented  in  Figures  V  and  VI.  One  of  the  important  limbs  present¬ 
ing  a  specific  characteristic  for  identification  had  been  blown  down 
by  the  wind,  but  was  found  and  tied  in  its  place  for  the  photograph. 
Another,  the  S-shaped  limb  in  the  tree  at  the  right,  had  also  been 
broken  off  by  sheep.  It  too  was  found.  The  two  limbs  are  rep¬ 
resented  in  Figures  VII  and  VIII.  The  limb  on  the  tree  at  the 
left,  which  turns  on  itself,  was  not  a  part  of  the  real  scene;  but,  as 
Mr.  Thompson  had  always  said  that  he  had  himself  inserted  this 
from  another  tree,  no  importance  attaches  to  this  discrepancy.  But 
the  branched  limb  on  the  ground  was  there,  and  the  cut  will  show 
the  two  large  rocks  lying  in  position.  The  decayed  spot  in  one 
tree,  the  one  at  the  left,  was  there.  There  was  no  storm  at  the 
time  of  our  visit  and  hence  no  such  appearance  as  the  picture  rep¬ 
resents.  But  the  group  of  trees  were  a  little  to  the  left  when  one 
faces  the  east,  and  when  facing  the  south  there  was  a  wood  on  the 
left.  The  bridge  was  not  exactly  a  rustic  bridge,  but  had  some 
resemblances  to  such.  On  the  left  of  the  bridge  was  a  “  slope 
down,”  which  had  to  be  crossed  in  reaching  the  promontory  where 
the  trees  were.  The  houses  were  west  of  this  spot  and  not  visible. 

The  reader  will  observe  from  the  cuts  that  there  is  more  distinct 
resemblance  between  the  sketch  which  had  been  placed  in  my  hands 
in  July,  1907,  and  the  painting  represented  by  Figure  IV  than  be¬ 
tween  either  the  sketch  or  the  painting  and  the  photographs  of  the 
real  scene.  But  the  specific  characteristics  which  determine  iden¬ 
tity  are  all  there,  and  unmistakably  indicate  the  right  trees,  though 
the  painting,  as  is  usual,  idealizes  the  scene. 

The  two  most  important  pictures  thus  seemed  to  bear  the  in¬ 
vestigation,  and  the  fundamental  question  of  Mr.  Thompson’s 
veracity,  which  was  the  first  thing  to  be  determined,  was  settled. 
Of  course  there  are  other  important  evidences  of  the  supernormal, 
not  connected  with  his  veracity,  namely,  the  mediumistic  phenom¬ 
ena  in  my  own  experiments.  As  many  of  the  circumstances  de¬ 
scribed  protect  the  genuineness  of  the  phenomena  affecting  the  two 


214  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

pictures,  we  may  feel  less  difficulty  in  accepting  other  instances 
where  similar  identity  exists  between  sketches  made  from  his  visions 
and  the  actual  scenes  afterwards  found.  There  were  several  of 
these.  There  was  one  of  a  forest,  rather  dense,  which  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son  sketched  from  an  hallucination  and  then  found  on  another 
easel,  though  he  did  not  recognize  it  at  the  time,  having  forgotten 
his  sketch.  There  were  also  two  sketches  of  a  seashore  and  a  man 
with  an  ox  team,  and  on  still  another  easel  in  Mr.  Gifford’s  studio 
was  a  painting  by  Mr.  Gifford  representing  the  same  scene. 

Mr.  Thompson  had  many  other  interesting  experiences  which 
he  recorded  in  his  diary  at  the  time.  When  he  was  on  the  island 
searching  for  the  scenes  which  had  haunted  his  visions,  he  often 
heard  music  like  that  of  a  guitar  or  violin  and  hunted  about  to  see 
if  it  was  produced  by  any  one.  He  found  no  evidence  of  any 
human  cause.  In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  but  one  house  on  the  is¬ 
land,  except  the  three  or  four  at  the  eastern  end  of  it.  The  island 
has  no  population  except  the  two  or  three  families  of  care-takers. 
Besides,  this  music  was  heard  at  different  times  and  places  on  the 
island,  and  once  Mr.  Thompson  ran  up  a  hill  to  see  if  he  could  find 
some  one  whom  he  fancied  he  heard  singing,  but  found  no  one. 
Usually  the  music  he  heard  was  instrumental.  A  friend  of  Mr. 
Gifford  states  that  Mr.  Gifford  was  passionately  fond  of  music, 
especially  of  the  violin.  Whether  there  is  anything  more  than  a  co¬ 
incidence  in  this  circumstance  must  be  determined  by  each  one  for 
himself. 

These  incidents  made  it  necessary  to  try  further  experiments 
with  psychics  to  see  if  I  could  obtain  more  specific  evidence  of  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Gifford.  I  therefore  held  a  number  of  sittings 
with  Mrs.  Rathbun  and  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  some  of  them  be¬ 
fore  the  public  knew  anything  about  my  work  on  the  case.  I  shall 
briefly  summarize  the  results,  indicating  those  obtained  before  the 
psychics  had  any  means  of  suspecting  that  I  was  experimenting 
with  Mr.  Thompson  and  before  they  knew  anything  of  the 
case. 

The  first  sitting  was  on  April  3  with  Mrs.  Rathbun,  and  was  held 
before  I  had  made  the  search  for  the  trees  mentioned  above.  She 
did  not  recognize  Mr.  Thompson,  whose  first  sitting  had  occurred 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD  215 

more  than  a  year  before.  At  this  sitting  Mrs.  Rathbun  soon  made 
the  following  very  relevant  statement: 

“  You  have  been  questioned  regarding  your  honesty,  so  far  as 
intuitions,  impressions  or  —  some  might  call  them  hallucinations, 
for  you  have  a  very  peculiar  power.” 

Then  came  an  allusion  to  a  lady  who  was  said  to  be  influencing 
him  from  the  other  side  of  life,  practically  implying  what  was  in¬ 
dicated  at  the  first  sitting  more  than  a  year  before.  Then  a  ref¬ 
erence  was  made  to  the  confused  state  of  Mr.  Thompson’s 
“material”  conditions  —  a  statement  that  was  exact,  if  it  can  be 
said  to  describe  the  effect  of  these  impulses  on  his  financial  situa¬ 
tion.  Then  a  reference  was  made  to  “  uniform,”  which  might  pos¬ 
sibly  be  interpreted  as  pointing  to  the  tarpaulin,  and  then  he  was 
told  that  he  had  twice  nearly  passed  out  of  the  body.  This  was 
exactly  true,  if  his  own  feelings  are  to  be  taken  as  the  guide.  When 
he  had  finished  the  painting  of  the  group  of  trees  above  described, 
and  called  the  “  Battle  of  the  Elements,”  he  had  felt  so  ecstatic 
that  he  could  describe  his  sensations  only  as  dying.  This  impres¬ 
sion  was  recorded  in  his  diary.  At  another  time  he  was  nearly 
dashed  to  pieces  while  painting  the  sea  in  a  tarpaulin,  and  had  to 
lash  himself  to  a  rock  to  keep  his  position.  These  facts  were 
known  only  to  Mr.  Thompson.  The  medium  mentioned  the  “  hurt 
or  blow  ”  connected  with  the  exposure. 

A  striking  allusion  was  made  to  an  operation  upon  a  man  who 
was  said  to  be  communicating;  Mr.  Thompson  while  on  the  island, 
had  witnessed  the  funeral  of  a  man  who  had  died  from  an  opera¬ 
tion,  and  the  scene  had  produced  a  profound  emotional  effect  on 
Mr.  Thompson.  There  was  some  confusion  by  the  medium  of  this 
incident  with  the  personality  of  the  artist  supposed  to  be  influencing 
his  work.  Some  striking  statements  were  made  about  a  ring  which 
Mr.  Thompson  was  wearing,  namely,  that  he  had  made  it  himself 
and  that  the  stones  in  it  had  been  changed,  and  a  number  of  other 
even  more  important  incidents,  which  I  need  not  mention  except 
to  indicate  their  irrelevance  and  yet  evidential  character  for  the 
supernormal. 

One  little  incident  of  great  relevance  was  mentioned.  It  was, 
that  there  was  a  little  woman  who  worried  a  great  deal  for  fear 


2i6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


that  he  would  not  be  practical,  and  that  she  wanted  to  get  him  into 
his  every-day  line  of  work.  Every  word  of  this  was  true  with 
reference  to  his  wife,  and  when  under  this  obsession  Mr.  Thompson 
was  not  very  practical  as  the  world  goes.  Then  the  medium  went 
on  to  describe  exactly  the  attitude  of  mind  which  his  relatives  had 
toward  his  experiences,  saying  that  they  thought  him  going  insane 
and  that  they  “  would  rather  you  were  more  practical  than  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  spiritual,”  adding  that  “  they  cannot  stop  you,  because 
it  is  not  hallucination  or  insanity.”  She  added  that  his  work  was 
influenced  by  spirits  about  him,  though  she  did  not  at  this  time  know 
anything  about  the  case. 

A  direct  allusion  was  made  “  to  peculiar  scenes  and  visions  ”  and 
“  lots  of  them  ”  that  he  had  around  him,  with  the  remark  that  some 
“  extraordinary  happenings  had  happened  to  him  within  the  last 
ten  months.”  Then  came  a  spontaneous  reference  to  the  ocean 
and  a  shipwreck  and  again  to  his  “  uniform  ”  and  a  reference  to 
what  must  be  taken  as  some  one  guiding  him  in  his  work  from  the 
“  other  side.”  The  pertinence  of  this  reference  is  apparent, 
whether  it  is  evidential  or  not.  One  remark  describes  an  exact 
scene  in  his  life,  when  he  was  painting  on  the  shore  of  the  sound. 
The  detailed  record  will  be  clearer  and  more  interesting  than  these 
excerpts,  and  also  will  contain  a  number  of  incidents  which,  though 
not  bearing  on  the  issue,  do  show  indications  of  supernormal  in¬ 
formation  about  incidents  in  Mr.  Thompson’s  life. 

At  the  second  sitting  there  was  much  relevant  matter  concerning 
Mr.  Thompson’s  life,  and  a  reference  to  a  box,  said  not  to  be  a 
satchel,  but  describing  Mr.  Thompson’s  means  of  carrying  about 
his  materials.  In  the  first  of  the  two  sittings  it  was  clearly  indi¬ 
cated  that  he  was  an  artist,  and  this  idea  is  made  still  clearer  in 
this  second  experiment.  The  most  important  allusion,  however, 
was  to  a  Latin  word  which  the  medium  said  had  come  to  him. 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  at  a  later  sitting  alluded  to  the  same  word.  Mr. 
Thompson  had  had  a  communication  from  an  alleged  spirit,  giving 
the  Latin  words  ‘'alter  ego,”  as  the  influence  affecting  him,  and 
purporting  to  come  from  a  lady.  There  was  then  an  allusion  to 
a  woman  and  a  child,  representing  something  that  he  had  seen  in 
his  visions  and  that  he  would  paint.  The  fact  was  that,  as  he  fin- 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


217 

ished  the  painting  of  the  group  of  trees  in  the  “  Battle  of  the 
Elements,”  he  saw  the  vision  of  a  woman  and  a  child  interfused 
with  the  scene,  and  had  been  haunted  ever  since  by  the  desire  to 
paint  this  representation  of  a  madonna  and  child.  The  statement 
that  he  drew  much  under  trees  was  true  and  pertinent.  There  was, 
however,  no  definite  identification  of  Mr.  Gifford.  The  two  sittings 
discovered  only  incidents  associated  with  the  life  of  Mr.  Thompson, 
with  a  few  vague  indications  of  the  source  from  which  his  apparent 
inspiration  came. 

The  next  two  sittings  were  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  on  the  dates  of 
April  10  and  ii.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  goes  into  a  light  trance  for  her 
oral  work.  Mrs.  Rathbun  was  normal  in  her  sittings.  There  was 
a  great  deal  of  subliminal  “chaff,”  if  I  may  so  describe  the  non- 
evidential  matter,  but  interfused  with  it  were  incidents  that  clearly 
represent  supernormal  information.  Mr.  Gifford  was  fairly  well 
described  in  several  characteristics  physical  and  mental,  with  some 
errors,  and  the  intimation  was  made  that  he  was  influencing  Mr. 
Thompson.  Mr.  Thompson’s  business  was  indicated  in  fairly  clear 
terms.  The  reference  to  a  woman  in  the  “  spirit  world  ”  and 
the  entire  account  of  her  relation  to  Mr.  Thompson  fitted  what  had 
been  told  through  Mrs.  Rathbun  in  her  first  and  later  sittings  and 
also  what  was  said  the  year  before  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth, 
though  she  did  not  know  that  I  had  brought  the  same  sitter.  We 
may  assume  that  her  subconscious  recognized  the  man.  Mr. 
Thompson’s  middle  name  was  given  and  an  allusion,  like  that  of 
Mrs.  Rathbun,  was  made  to  his  unsettled  condition  of  mind  and 
body,  a  very  pertinent  statement  because  of  the  embarrassed  state 
of  his  finances  at  the  time.  This  was  followed  by  a  description  of 
Mr.  Gifford’s  work  at  painting,  evidently  to  identify  him,  but  the 
medium  wholly  misinterpreted  it  to  refer  to  writing.  The  incident 
as  understood  by  her  was  wholly  false.  But  immediately  there¬ 
after  she  described  a  pocket-book,  brown,  old  and  shiny,  long  as  a 
bill-book,  with  papers  in  it.  Later  in  the  deeper  trance  and  by  au¬ 
tomatic  writing  the  same  psychic  referred  to  it  again  with  more 
details.  Mr.  Gifford  had  no  such  pocket-book,  but  he  did  have  a 
sketch-book  and  in  fact  many  of  them,  which  might  be  so  described. 
In  the  later  sitting  it  was  said  that  this  pocket-book  had  a  strap 


2i8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


about  it  and  contained  a  burial  permit.  Mr.  Giflord  used  rubber 
bands  about  his  sketch-book,  but  had  no  burial  permit  in  it.  He  did 
carry  in  his  sketch-book  a  permit  to  visit  the  island  of  Nashawena. 

Then  came  the  following  statement :  “  Did  you  ever  have  a  feel¬ 

ing  as  if  you  were  away  from  the  body,  above  everything,  some¬ 
times?”  Mr.  Thompson  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  further 
statements  refer  to  the  outside  influences  producing  this  effect  on 
Mr.  Thompson. 

Then  came  the  statement:  “Another  thing.  You  have  got  a 
sort  of  hearing.  It  is  not  definitely  unfolded  yet,  but  there  are 
times  when  you  can  get  strains  of  music,  just  as  though  it  floats 
about  you.  People  don’t  seem  to  understand  you,  do  they,  around 
you?”  There  then  followed  a  long  and  accurate  description  of 
!Mr.  Thompson's  habits  at  the  time,  none  of  it  specifically  evidential, 
except  the  allusion  to  “  dreams  that  he  has  sometimes  ”  and  to  his 
“  throwing  himself  down  at  night  and  looking  and  trying  to  see 
the  spirits  and  as  though  he  felt  such  dreams.”  The  reader  will 
recognize  the  relevance  of  the  allusion  to  music  and  the  “  dreams,” 
which  apparently  refer  to  his  visions;  he  did  at  times  exactly  what 
is  here  said,  throw  himself  down  and  give  way  to  his  visions. 

The  next  sitting  contains  a  large  amount  of  pertinent  matter,  too 
vague  to  summarize,  and  open  to  the  interpretation  of  inference 
from  admissions  by  Mr.  Thompson.  But  there  were  a  few  inci¬ 
dents  specific  enough  to  attract  attention.  The  first  was  a  state¬ 
ment  that  he,  the  sitter,  had  a  lot  of  unfinished  canvases,  and  a  ref¬ 
erence  to  a  yellow  cliff  and  the  blue  sea,  this  being  a  very  definite 
reference  to  a  picture  which  Mr.  Thompson  had  painted  at  Cutty- 
hunk  and  which  he  had  long  before  sketched  from  a  vision.  Mr. 
Thompson  had  never  seen  this  bluff.  Following  this  was  an  ap¬ 
parent  allusion  to  Mr.  Thompson’s  occupation  as  a  goldsmith,  then 
to  influences  from  older  and  deceased  artists  for  which  there  was 
no  specific  evidence. 

The  next  specific  incident  was  a  reference  to  a  vision  of  a  woman ; 
no  mention  of  a  child  is  made  in  connection  with  it,  but  he  is  told 
that  he  is  to  paint  this.  The  reader  will  recognize  the  allusion  to 
the  vision  Mr.  Thompson  had  when  he  had  finished  painting  the 
trees,  and  the  similar  reference  of  Mrs.  Rathbun.  Mr.  Thompson 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


219 


was  told  that  in  connection  with  this  inspiration  he  would  slip 
away  by  himself  and  cry,  and  that  now,  when  off  alone  tears  would 
often  come,  tears  of  joy  at  his  work.  This  statement  was  true. 

But  the  evidence  of  personal  identity  in  these  sittings  with  both 
Mrs.  Rathbun  and  Mrs.  Chenoweth  is  entirely  unsatisfactory. 
There  is  evidence  of  supernormal  information;  and  a  critical  analy¬ 
sis  of  the  whole  mass  of  statements,  in  spite  of  its  “  chaffy  ”  char¬ 
acter,  will  reveal  interesting  pertinence  throughout.  But  my 
dissatisfaction  was  so  great  that  I  resolved  on  a  different  type  of 
e.xperiments.  Those  just  summarized  represented  work  previous 
to  any  possible  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  psychics  of  what  I 
was  doing  and  of  Mr.  Thompson’s  experience.  The  public,  by 
this  time,  as  a  result  of  my  inquiries  on  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  had 
learned  something  of  the  case ;  very  little  that  was  relevant,  how¬ 
ever,  got  into  the  papers,  and  nothing  that  is  attributable  to  that 
source  of  information  came  out  in  the  records.  However  this  may 
be,  it  was  necessary  to  experiment  further  to  satisfy  the  require¬ 
ment  for  better  evidence  of  personal  identity  in  the  alleged  com¬ 
municator,  and  the  deeper  trance  afforded  me  a  better  opportunity 
for  testing  the  case.  The  experiments  were  conducted  without  ad¬ 
mitting  Mr.  Thompson  to  the  room  until  after  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had 
gone  into  her  trance.  The  results  were  much  better  than  before.  I 
summarize  them  briefly. 

It  took  some  time  to  obtain  an  adjustment  at  the  first  sitting. 
The  communicator  who  first  appeared  through  the  automatic  writ¬ 
ing  purported  to  be  Professor  Sidgwick.  Not  a  hint  was  given  of 
any  one  related  to  Mr.  Thompson  until  he  moved  in  his  chair:  then, 
as  if  awakened  by  this,  the  medium  at  once  referred  to  some  one 
near  him  and  began  at  once  to  tell  incidents  related  to  Mr.  Gifford. 
Allusion  was  made  to  a  man  with  a  whip  in  his  hand  and  familiar 
with  horses.  This  was  not  especially  significant,  but  immediately 
following  it  was  a  reference  to  a  gang-plank,  a  steamer,  and  a  trip, 
not  on  the  ocean,  and  then  to  the  “  wallet  ”  smooth  and  shiny  with 
the  burial  permit  in  it,  apparently  an  allusion  to  his  sketch-book,  as 
explained  above.  The  account  of  his  room  and  desk  with  their 
papers  was  accurate  enough,  considering  that  he  taught  as  well  as 
painted,  but  it  had  no  value  as  evidence,  while  the  immediate  state- 


220  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ment  that  he  had  taken  a  little  journey  just  before  he  passed  away 
was  true  and  quite  pertinent,  as  he  had  taken  a  little  trip  with  Mrs. 
Gifford  just  before  his  fatal  illness.  When  the  automatic  writing 
came,  the  first  allusion  was  to  a  woman  who  might  have  been  re¬ 
garded  as  Mr.  Thompson’s  grandmother,  though  she  was  not  evi¬ 
dentially  indicated.  Then  the  control  took  up  the  personality  whom 
we  were  seeking  and  referred  again  to  the  journey  before  he  passed 
out,  and  added  that  there  were  two  services  in  connection  with  the 
funeral,  which  was  true  of  Mr.  Gifford.  There  arose  a  clear  idea 
that  I  was  seeking  incidents  to  identify  this  personality.  There 
followed  an  earnest  effort  to  supply  these,  though  the  success  for 
some  time  was  not  marked.  An  allusion  was  made  to  certain 
“  black  figures,  like  stellar  geography  ”  scattered  through  a  book 
that  was  mentioned,  which  would  fit  some  of  Mr.  Gifford’s  illus¬ 
trating,  though  the  incident  cannot  be  regarded  as  evidential. 
Finally  the  communication  became  so  confused  and  equivocal  that 
I  indicated  that  the  whole  thing  was  perfectly  blind;  in  order  to 
identify  the  man  more  clearly  an  allusion  was  made  by  the  control 
to  “  color,  more  color,  and  more  again.”  I  hinted  that  they  were 
now  on  the  right  line,  and  there  came  an  allusion  to  the  “  paper 
hand-book  again,”  with  a  statement,  very  true  of  Mr.  Gifford,  that 
the  “  blue  and  the  sky  were  always  fascinating  to  him.” 

At  this  point  there  was  an  apparent  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
communicator  directly  to  control  the  writing  himself,  but  he  was 
unable  to  effect  his  object,  though  he  made  the  remarkably  inter¬ 
esting  statement  that  “  it  was  so  much  of  an  effort  to  keep  his 
memory  and  all  the  work  at  the  same  time.”  The  sitting  then  came 
to  an  end. 

As  Mrs.  Chenoweth  came  out  of  the  trance  she  said  some  things 
relevant  to  the  identity  of  Mr.  Thompson.  She  described  a  large 
horse  and  said  it  was  one  that  he  used  to  ride  “  back  to,”  with  some 
reference  to  peculiarities  in  Mr.  Thompson  that  took  him  out  of 
the  athletic  class,  though  he  has  an  athletic  body.  All  this  was  true 
about  his  riding  a  horse  when  a  boy,  and  it  was  just  such  a 
horse  as  was  described.  She  then  stated  that  he  was  an  artist  and 
made  a  reference  to  the  influence  of  colors  on  him,  specifying  his 
love  of  yellow,  which  was  true. 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


221 


On  the  next  day  there  elapsed  considerable  time  before  any 
relevant  facts  appeared.  Apparently  the  controls  tried  subliminal 
methods  instead  of  automatic  writing,  hoping  that  identity  might 
be  better  established  by  that  means  than  by  writing.  A  great 
many  things  were  said  that  were  true,  but  not  evidential.  The  first 
incident  that  promised  to  be  valuable  was  the  following : 

“  I  think  he  smokes.  It  is  something  that  he  holds  in  his  mouth.  He 
does  n’t  seem  to  be  always  smoking,  but  it  seems  that  he  holds  something  in 
his  mouth  quite  a  lot ;  really,  like  a  —  like  —  I  think  it  is  like  a  cigarette. 
I  think  he  gets  nervous  and  rolls  them  up  and  then  holds  them  there  and  then 
sits  down  and  does  a  little  and  does  that  again,  just  that  little  nervous 
anxious  way.” 

Now,  as  fortune  would  have  it,  inquiry  showed  that  Mr.  Gifford 
did  not  smoke,  and,  even  if  he  had  smoked,  the  incident  would  have 
been  without  evidential  importance.  But  I  learned  that  Mr.  Gifford 
was  in  the  habit  of  holding  a  stick  in  his  mouth  when  he  was  at 
work,  rolling  it  about  and  chewing  it  as  some  people  use  cigarettes 
or  cigars.  The  description  of  the  medium  does  not  clearly  indicate 
assurance  as  to  what  it  is,  and  the  expressions  “  holds  in  his  mouth  ” 
and  “  does  n’t  seem  to  be  always  smoking  ”  suggest  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  passage  in  conformity  with  the  facts  as  I  ascertained 
them. 

Then  came  a  reference  to  a  “  soft  cap,  not  a  skull  cap  ”  which 
might  have  meant  a  Scotch  cap  which  he  used  to  wear.  The  men¬ 
tion  of  his  desire  to  paint  a  pearl  was  not  verifiable.  But,  on  being 
asked  to  describe  the  picture  that  was  on  his  easel,  the  communi¬ 
cator,  or  the  subliminal  of  the  medium,  made  the  following  state¬ 
ment: 

“Yes,  indeed,  I  see  it.  It  is  quite  a  good-sized  one.  Yes,  indeed,  there 
is  a  picture  there  and  it  is  a  picture  of  a  scene.  It  is  not  a  person.  It  is 
a  scene  and  I  can  see  away  off  in  it.  It  is  n’t  all  done,  you  know.  It  is 
partly  done,  but  mostly  done  so  that  you  can  see  pretty  nearly  what  it  is. 
Oh,  but  it  is  beautiful,  you  know.  But  there  are  some  trees  in  it  and 
there  is  some  foreground  that  is  lighter  and  then  the  background  seems 
dark,  but  some  trees  and  I  think  I  catch  some  glimpses  of  light  in  through. 
It  does  n’t  seem  like  a  scene  around  here.  It  seems  as  though  there  is 
some  sky  in  it  and  that  everything  is  very  brilliant.  Everything  he  did 
is  brilliant,  brilliant  colorings.  He  likes  those  things,  you  know.” 


222  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


The  reader  may  determine  for  himself  the  measure  of  accuracy  in 
this  account  by  comparing  it  with  the  cut  represented  in  Figure  II. 
This  represents  the  picture  that  was  on  the  easel  and  that  cor¬ 
responds  to  the  sketch  which  Mr.  Thompson  made  from  a  vision 
without  ever  having  seen  the  original.  This  original  was  an  un¬ 
finished  sketch  of  Mr.  Gifford’s.  The  inaccuracy  in  the  account  is 
the  reference  to  the  background  as  dark.  But  this  is  apparently 
corrected  by  the  allusion  to  light  being  visible  through  it.  It  is 
possible  that  the  very  dark  field  occupied  by  the  trees  might  be 
taken  by  obscure  perception  for  the  background.  In  any  case  the 
other  characteristics  mentioned  do  apply  to  this  picture. 

The  next  incident,  perhaps  as  suggestive  as  that  just  marked, 
was  the  statement :  “  There  is  another  little  thing  that  stands  up,  or 

else  it  is  pinned  up,  but  it  is  something  like  a  small  thing.  It  is 
thinner  and  smaller  than  the  picture.  It  is  not  a  study  of  the  pic¬ 
ture.  It  is  something  different  and  seems  to  be  up  on  one  of  the 
posts.” 

Now  Mr.  Gifford  had  a  smaller  sketch  of  this  same  scene,  from 
which  he  had  painted  the  larger  one  represented  in  Figure  II,  and 
it  too  was  on  the  easel,  placed  very  much  as  indicated. 

After  a  number  of  pertinent,  though  non-evidential,  allusions,  I 
was  told  that  he  had  illustrated  poetry  and  had  done  work  in 
“  black  and  white,”  both  of  which  I  was  able  to  verify.  The 
allusion  to  “  atmosphere  ”  as  characteristic  of  him  was  true  and  sug¬ 
gestive.  The  reference  to  his  having  many  unfinished  canvases 
was  true  and  more  or  less  evidential. 

After  some  confused  allusions  to  travel,  came  an  evident  at'* 
tempt  to  describe  his  old  home  and  its  surroundings.  That  it  was 
a  “  goodcolored  ”  house  and  a  landmark  was  true,  and  also  that 
there  was  a  “  piece  at  the  end  ” ;  there  was  an  “  L  ”  on  the  house. 
That  it  was  inland  was  true.  That  he  could  look  over  water  from 
it  was  true  and  that  there  was  “  a  lake  near  where  he  was  ”  was 
almost  correct,  as  Hadley  Bay,  shut  up  by  the  surrounding  land, 
looks  like  a  lake.  Still  more  pertinent  was  the  statement  that  it 
“  had  beautiful  views  around  it,  and  then  hills  rising  soft  like 
billows.” 

Another  incident  is  very  interesting.  I  quote  it  in  full. 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


223 

“  I  want  to  know  if  you  know  anything  about  a  little  loft.  It  seems  as 
though  —  I  have  got  two  places  that,  this  spirit  worked  in ;  one  is  off,  you 
know.” 

(Yes.) 

“  In  the  country.  One  is  in  the  city.” 

( Yes. ) 

“  You  know.  Well,  do  you  know  anything  about  what  I  would  call  a 
little  loft?  It  seems  almost  like  going  up  in  a  barn  or  a  shed,  and  there 
is  a  smell  of  hay  and  a  smell  of  things  around,  but  some  things  are  kept 
up  there  —  and  working  there  sometimes.” 

(All  right.  I  think  I  shall  find  out  about  that.) 

“  It  is  a  place.  It  is  not  a  house,  you  know.  It  is  like  a  place  that  you 
go  and  can  open  doors  wide  and  look  out,  upstairs,  you  know,  and  it  smells 
of  hay.” 

Mr.  Gifford  had  two  places  for  work,  one  in  the  country  and 
one  in  the  city.  Early  in  his  artistic  career  he  had  a  studio  in  a 
barn  and  he  and  Mrs.  Gifford  used  to  work  there,  as  indicated.  All 
the  incidents  were  true  as  stated,  even  to  the  wide  doors. 

Then  the  means  of  communication  changed  to  automatic  writ¬ 
ing.  The  communicator  was  asked,  after  he  had  intimated  that  he 
was  influencing  the  sitter,  whether  he  knew  what  particular  things 
he  had  impressed  upon  the  man.  The  reply  was : 

“  Of  course  he  knows  or  rather  he  knew  there  was  a  scene  which  he 
was  trying  to  project  which  he  has  never  yet  given.  It  is  a  misty  day 
on  the  old  road  or  a  misty  day  on  the  marshes.  I  do  not  know  which. 
It  has  come  over  our  friend  a  number  of  times  that  a  misty  day,  a  soft 
gray  day  would  be  a  good  subject.” 

Every  word  of  this  is  true.  Mr.  Gifford  had  had  a  great  liking 
for  misty  days  and  atmosphere,  as  perhaps  many  artists  have ;  but 
Mr.  Thompson  states  that  he  has  often  been  haunted  by  appari¬ 
tions  of  misty  scenes  and  days  to  be  painted.  This  remark  was 
followed  by  the  statement  of  the  communicator  or  the  medium  that 
Mr.  Thompson  had  trouble  in  selecting  his  paints,  and  that  he  had 
especial  difificulty  with  his  grays,  while  the  yellows  turned  up 
more  easily.  All  this  was  perfectly  true. 

The  next  sitting  was  with  Mrs.  Rathbun.  The  first  allusion  was 
to  a  picture,  which  was  said  to  be  at  my  house ;  I  had  only  a  short 
time  before  taken  one  of  Mr.  Thompson’s  pictures  to  hold  it  against 
a  cheap  sale.  It  was  the  “  Battle  of  the  Elements.”  The  last  inci- 


224  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

dent,  indicating  the  supernormal  though  not  evidence  of  communi¬ 
cation  with  the  dead,  was  Mrs.  Rathbun’s  allusion  to  something  in 
Mr.  Thompson’s  pocket,  which  she  said  had  been  cut  in  Paris.  Mr. 
Thompson  had  in  his  pocket  some  crystals  from  Paris;  it  is  not 
possible  that  Mrs.  Rathbun  knew  anything  about  them. 

Mrs.  Chenoweth  was  the  subject  of  the  next  sittings.  The  first 
evidential  circumstance  was  an  account  of  what  was  in  his  house. 
The  medium  indicated  that  he  had  a  lot  of  old-fashioned  furniture 
in  it;  that  he  had  some  straight-backed  rush-bottom  chairs,  and 
that  there  was  an  old-fashioned  bureau  “  with  legs  that  curve  out.” 
Mr.  Gifford  was  fond  of  old-fashioned  furniture,  and  had  in  his 
house  such  a  bureau,  with  bird-claw  legs,  and  some  rush-bottomed 
chairs. 

The  next  incident  is  as  interesting  for  its  mistake  as  for  its  apt¬ 
ness.  The  medium  said  that  the  artist  had  something  “  almost 
like  a  basket  near  a  shelf  with  a  lot  of  brushes  in  it,”  and  that  he 
“  kept  an  awful  lot  of  old  brushes,”  and  that  when  he  came  to 
paint  “  rocks  and  things  that  were  rough  ”  he  resorted  to  these 
old  brushes,  and  that  he  seldom  threw  a  brush  away.  Mr.  Gifford 
did  keep  his  old  brushes  and  use  them  in  this  way.  They  were  not 
kept  in  a  basket,  but  in  a  ginger  jar. 

When  asked  whether  he  had  communicated  elsewhere  he  admitted 
that  he  had,  and  indicated  the  number  of  times  with  fair  correctness. 
Then  a  reference  was  made  to  an  intended  picture  for  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son,  a  symbolic  painting  about  the  past  and  the  future,  which  Mr. 
Thompson  took  to  represent  his  vision,  interpreted  to  mean  im¬ 
mortality.  After  some  apparent  effort  to  recall,  the  communicator 
mentioned  a  man  by  the  name  of  Cox,  saying  that  he  was  an  illus¬ 
trator.  Mr.  Gifford  had  a  friend  by  this  name,  but  he  was  an  archi¬ 
tect,  not  an  illustrator.  Mention  was  made  of  his  having  painted 
a  fish,  an  incident  that  Mrs.  Gifford  says  was  true;  in  response  to 
the  question  whether  he  liked  sublime  scenery,  the  reply  was,  that 
he  liked  wild  things  better,  which  was  true.  In  a  few  minutes  he 
or  the  medium  .spontaneously  indicated  that  he  had  painted  Dutch 
scenes,  windmills  and  the  like.  This  was  true.  The  paintings 
that  had  made  his  reputation  were  of  the  Dartmouth  salt  works, 
with  windmills  in  them,  and  resembling  many  of  the  Dutch  paint- 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD  225 

ings.  He  was  said  by  the  psychic  to  have  admired  Dutch  paint¬ 
ing,  a  statement  which  seems  to  have  been  true. 

Then  came  a  remarkable  passage  which  is  too  long  to  quote  but 
which  is  full  of  evidential  matter.  Reference  was  made  to 
“  scraggly  and  gnarled  oaks  ”  and  “  an  overhanging  bank  ”  with  a 
boat  near  and  “  the  ocean  in  front.”  Mr.  Gifford  had  actually 
painted  such  a  scene  near  his  cottage.  I  have  a  cut  of  it.  It  was 
not  the  ocean  in  front,  but  Buzzard’s  Bay.  Immediately  after  this 
came  a  reference  to  the  “  river  in  back,”  and  suddenly  an  allusion 
to  the  lighthouse  there,  saying  that  its  light  was  not  one  “  of  the 
revolving  kind,”  but  steady,  and  that  the  lighthouse  was  “  straight 
and  white,”  and  was  called  the  “  Farmer’s  Light.”  It  was  Dump¬ 
ling  light  that  was  near  his  cottage.  It  was  white  and  the  light 
was  not  a  revolving  one,  but  was  steady  as  affirmed. 

The  account  of  his  painting  in  storms  would  have  been  correct  if 
it  had  been  asserted  of  an  occasional  trial,  but  it  applies  more  fit¬ 
tingly  to  much  that  Mr.  Thompson  had  done.  After  an  unsuccess¬ 
ful  attempt  to  describe  his  house  in  the  city,  the  communicator  de¬ 
scribed  a  favorite  picture.  Mrs.  Gifford  did  not  recognize  the 
special  picture  described,  but  said  that  several  favorites  were,  in 
character,  much  like  the  one  described. 

The  communicator  said  that  he  had  lost  a  child  and  that  he  had 
once  or  twice  tried  to  paint  the  boy’s  face  in  some  picture.  I 
ascertained  that  this  was  true.  The  name  of  the  child  was  in¬ 
correctly  given. 

At  this  point  the  subliminal  communications  ceased,  and  the  com¬ 
municator  attempted  to  control  directly,  with  rather  remarkable 
results.  Besides  referring  correctly  to  the  “  blue  and  disheartened  ” 
days  through  which  Mr.  Thompson  had  passed,  and  to  the  effort 
which  he,  the  communicator,  had  made  to  influence  him,  he  asked 
the  sitter,  Mr.  Thompson,  the  following  very  remarkable  question; 

“  I  have  been  to  him  as  in  dreams  at  times.” 

(Yes,  I  understand.) 

“  And  will  do  so  again.” 

(Thank  you.) 

“  Ask  him  if  he  remembers  an  incident  when,  standing  on  a  bridge  and 
looking  down,  he  saw  pictures  in  the  water  like  reflections  and  a  great  de¬ 
sire  came  over  him  to  paint?  ” 


226  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


(Yes,  he  says  he  remembers  that  well.) 

“  I  was  there  and  followed  him  for  some  time.  Sometimes  in  the  old 
days  he  was  so  disheartened  and  blue,  as  if  had  not  found  the  right  path, 
but  now  he  is  far  happier  and  life  seems  more  complete.” 

The  reader  will  appreciate  this  passage  when  he  knows  that,  early 
in  his  visit  to  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  as  Mr.  Thompson  stood  on  the 
very  bridge  from  which  we  discovered  the  group  of  oak  trees 
painted  in  the  “  Battle  of  the  Elements,”  he  was  looking  at  the 
reflections  of  the  rocks,  covered  with  moss  and  sea-weed,  when 
they  appeared  as  landscapes  to  his  vision,  and  there  came  over  him 
an  ecstatic  desire  to  paint.  He  was  a  very  much  disheartened  man 
before  and  after  this  experience,  but,  with  the  resolution  formed 
on  that  occasion,  he  went  about  the  island  discovering  and  paint¬ 
ing  the  various  scenes  that  had  haunted  his  visions. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mr.  Gifford,  if  I  may  assume  that  he  was 
really  communicating,  tried  direct  communications  again;  and, 
among  a  number  of  true  and  pertinent  incidents  not  especially  im¬ 
portant,  he  asked  me,  in  Mr.  Thompson’s  absence,  how  I  liked  the 
comparison  of  the  picture  and  the  real  scene.  The  interest  here  lies 
in  the  fact  that  I  had  a  few  days  previously  been  on  the  second 
trip  to  search  for  the  trees  that  we  finally  found  in  July.  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about  this  trip,  though  she  had  known 
after  the  middle  of  May  that  I  had  been  investigating  the  case 
on  the  coast  of  New  England.  When  I  asked  the  communicator 
what  scene  and  what  picture,  as  we  had  not  yet  found  the  object 
of  our  quest,  he  replied,  the  small  one,  and  described  it  as  “  the 
marsh  and  tree  and  you  know  it  was  the  misty  one,”  and  asked 
me,  “  How  do  you  explain  the  bit  of  red  in  a  sunset  sky?  It  was 
good,  but  the  red  was  put  in  as  an  afterthought.”  We  had  not 
noticed  any  such  scene  and  did  not  know  of  any  such  picture.  But 
Mrs.  Gifford  told  me  that  he  had  once  painted  such  a  picture  and 
that  he  had  afterwards  put  in  the  red  of  the  sunset.  The  com¬ 
municator  then  went  on  to  remark  that  he  had  in  mind  a  picture  of 
death  represented  by  a  beckoning  angel  with  one  hand  pointing  to 
a  path  leading  up  a  mountain,  and  that  Mr.  Thompson  had  seen  it 
as  in  a  dream.  The  main  features  of  this  are  true. 

As  I  had  never  obtained  Mr.  Gifford’s  name  in  the  communica- 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


227 

tions,  and  as  I  desired  to  strengthen  the  evidence  by  experiments 
through  Mrs.  Smead,  whose  motives  could  not  possibly  be  sus¬ 
pected,  I  brought  her  from  the  Southern  state  where  she  lived, 
some  thirteen  miles  from  a  railway  and  almost  inaccessible  to  in¬ 
formation  about  the  case. 

The  first  few  experiments  did  not  show  any  evidence  of  the  com¬ 
municator’s  identity.  At  the  first  sitting  it  was  distinctly  intimated 
that  Mr.  Thompson  had  to  do  with  art,  as  a  gilt-framed  painting 
in  oil,  representing  a  landscape,  was  referred  to  as  standing  near 
his  door.  This  was  correct.  At  the  next  sitting  the  communicator 
was  identified  as  an  artist  and  I  was  told  that  “  he  likes  that  pic¬ 
ture  which  you  have,”  apparently  referring  to  one  of  two  that  I 
had.  I  had  taken  the  “  Battle  of  the  Elements,”  and  had  been 
given  another  picture  of  merit,  in  fact  one  of  the  best  that  Mr. 
Thompson  had  painted.  Mrs.  Smead  knew  nothing  about  them,  as 
one  of  them  had  been  put  away  out  of  sight,  and  the  other  was 
hanging  unexplained  in  my  parlor.  Some  very  good  advice  was 
given  Mr.  Thompson  about  his  pictures,  and  a  reference  was  made 
to  teaching,  relevant  to  the  personality  of  Mr.  GifYord.  The  next 
experiment  was  similar;  in  the  last  one  the  most  interesting  inci¬ 
dents  were  given  to  establish  the  identity  of  the  communicator. 
I  was  usually  sent  out  of  the  room  by  the  control,  in  order  to  leave 
Mr.  Thompson  alone  with  the  communicator,  but  before  leaving 
on  this  day,  I  asked  Dr.  Hodgson,  who  was  acting  as  amanuensis, 
that  is  as  control,  to  try  to  give  the  communicator’s  name.  At 
once  he  write  out  “  R.  G.  yes.”  I  conjecture  that  “  yes  ”  was  a 
mistake  for  “  S,”  the  probable  intention  being  to  give  “  R.  G.  S.” 
—  Robert  Swain  Gifford  was  his  name.  Soon  after,  ”  R.  G.  S.” 
was  given  and  the  ”  S  ”  repeated. 

After  I  had  left  the  room,  the  communicator  referred  to  a  pic¬ 
ture  “  on  the  canvas  with  the  rock  on  the  coast  ”  and  added  “  yes, 
the  ocean  ”  and  then  drew  a  picture  representing  a  pile  of  rocks 
mounted  by  a  cross,  and  wrote  out  “  and  my  name  is  on  it.”  Later 
in  the  sitting  an  allusion  was  made  to  it  again  and  the  cross  was 
drawn  again  and  this  time  apparently  not  on  a  pile  of  rocks  but  on 
a  ground  of  sand  washed  by  the  waves. 

While  on  the  shore  last  summer,  Mr.  Thompson  saw  some 


228  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


^vreckag•e  ahead  of  him,  and  on  approaching  it  saw  on  it  a  cross, 
caused  by  a  rib  of  a  boat  crossed  by  a  piece  of  timber.  As  he  went 
nearer  he  saw  the  initials  of  Mr.  Gifford  on  it,  but  as  he  went  still 
nearer,  the  initials  disappeared.  He  wrote  out  an  account  of  this 
experience  at  the  time  and  sent  it  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Thompson. 
She  gave  the  letter  to  me  on  November  lO,  and  I  had  it  in  my  files 
at  the  time  of  tliis  sitting,  December  9. 

The  communicator  then  indicated  that  the  scene  was  in  “  our 
\Vest  Indies,”  a  fair  indication  of  the  locality.  Soon  a  statement 
was  made  by  the  communicator  that  he  had  sketched  at  a  place  which 
he  had  tried  to  indicate,  apparently  getting  the  word  “  Island.” 
He  soon  said  that  “  swimming  was  a  sport  of  which  I  was  very 
fond  there  on  the  island  shore.”  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify 
the  statement  about  the  swimming,  but  a  correct  reference  to  a 
cottage  and  his  mother,  as  his  early  home  was  there,  makes  it 
probable  that  the  statement  about  swimming,  though  not  evidential, 
is  correct.  His  allusion  to  the  house  as  their  “  spot  ”  was  also 
true,  and  the  term  apparently  a  characteristic  one. 

In  connection  with  the  reference  to  the  house,  he  mentioned 
that  he  used  to  climb  and  sketch  the  trees  there.  After  stating 
that  he  had  sketched  them,  he  made  an  excellent  evidential  remark. 
He  said  “  the  wind  used  to  blow  them  dreadfully,  yes,  away  over. 
Can  you  remember  the  storms  we  used  to  have  there  ?  ”  That 
coast  is  a  very  stormy  one,  and  the  trees  in  that  locality  are  re¬ 
markably  storm-blown.  I  have  seen  some  whose  tops  had  been 
made,  by  the  winds,  to  grow  at  right  angles  to  the  trunk.  Im¬ 
mediately  he  was  asked  to  give  the  name  of  the  island  where  he  had 
done  his  work.  Apparently  he  got  the  capital  letter  “  E  ”  and  more 
probably  the  word  Island,  the  letter  “  I  ”  being  found  clearly 
written  several  times.  The  suggestion  of  Elizabeth  Islands  is 
thus  clear.  This  was  followed  by  his  initials  “  R.  S.  G.”  in  their 
correct  order.  After  repeating  the  reference  to  the  storms  and 
waves  circular  lines  were  drawn  to  represent  the  rolling  of  the 
waves  on  the  shore,  and  a  reference,  probably  correct,  was  made 
to  skipping  rocks  on  the  water  when  a  boy;  then  in  reply  to  the 
second  request  to  give  the  name  of  the  island  he  got  the  word 


ROBERT  SWAIN  GIFFORD 


229 

“  Marchan,”  which  will  suggest  to  any  reader  what  island  was 
meant.  This  ended  the  sittings. 

It  is  impossible  within  the  compass  of  this  chapter  to  discuss 
these  incidents  and  their  import.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  have 
the  same  general  character  as  those  which  come  from  Mrs.  Piper, 
Mrs.  Verrall  and  others,  and,  assuming  that  they  are  free  from 
suspicion,  must  have  the  same  interpretation.  The  circumstances 
make  some  of  the  facts  less  evidential  than  others.  But  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  defend  or  apologize  for  the  weaker  incidents.  We 
may  discard  the  sittings  with  Mrs.  Rathbun  and  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
after  the  middle  of  May,  when  we  may  suppose  them  to  have  had 
the  opportunity  to  make  inquiries.  The  reader  may  feel  assured 
that  they  did  not  do  so,  but  the  opportunity  may  be  conceded,  on 
account  of  their  knowledge  that  I  was  investigating  the  case.  Dis¬ 
counting  all  sittings  after  the  middle  of  May,  we  nevertheless  have 
a  number  that  give  evidence  of  supernormal  information  under 
test  conditions.  Besides,  whatever  we  may  assume  as  possible 
regarding  the  others,  the  careful  student  will  examine  the  facts 
and  may  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  afford  internal  evidence 
of  good  faith;  many  of  them  could  not  easily  have  been  obtained 
by  any  sort  of  inquiry  without  betraying  the  purpose. 

Whatever  suspicion  may  be  entertained  regarding  a  part  of  the 
record  connected  with  Mrs.  Rathbun  and  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  cannot 
be  applied  to  that  of  Mrs.  Smead,  where  the  evidence,  though  often 
confused,  is  unmistakable,  and  shows  that  ordinary  explanations 
cannot  be  applied  to  her  sittings. 

On  any  theory  we  ought  to  recognize  that  the  identity  of  Mr. 
Gifford  is  clear.  There  are  perhaps  no  single  incidents  that  would 
force  one  to  accept  this  view,  but  their  collective  force  is  over¬ 
whelming  and  constitutes  a  mass  of  relevant  hints  inapplicable  to 
any  one  else.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and  significant  circum¬ 
stances,  which  could  not  be  indicated  in  a  summary  of  the  facts,  is 
the  constant  assumption  and  frequent  assertion  that  the  communi¬ 
cator  has  been  and  still  is  influencing  Mr.  Thompson,  and  influenc¬ 
ing  him  to  paint.  Besides  this,  the  mediumistic  phenomena  cor¬ 
roborate  the  spontaneous  experiences  of  Mr.  Thompson  and  point 


230  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

in  the  same  direction.  Superficially,  at  least,  all  the  facts  point 
to  the  spiritistic  hypothesis,  whatever  perplexities  exist  in  regard  to 
the  modus  operandi  of  the  agencies  effecting  the  results. 

A  striking  character  of  the  phenomena  is,  that  the  hallucinations 
cannot  be  rationally  accounted  for  by  telepathy  between  the  living. 
Wt  might  suppose  telepathy  and  telepathic  phantasms  from  the 
dead,  but  to  do  this  is  to  concede  that  the  facts  either  tend  to  prove 
the  spiritistic  hypothesis  or  are  explicable  by  it,  while  the  medium- 
istic  incidents  support  it  independently  and  confirm  the  character 
and  significance  of  the  visions. 

The  critical  inquirer  should  go  to  the  detailed  report  for  a 
correct  understanding  of  the  facts  and  of  their  evidential  nature. 
They  occur  in  the  midst  of  much  chaff  and  confusion,  and  a  sum¬ 
mary  like  this  necessarily  makes  the  case  appear  stronger  than  it 
might  appear  to  one  who  had  to  wade  through  the  entire  records. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  who  takes  this  trouble  will  discover,  by 
careful  investigation,  that  there  is  a  connected  relevance  in  much 
of  the  non-evidential  matter,  which  may  appear  to  strengthen  the 
case  instead  of  weakening  it. 

I  have  not  mentioned  the  cross-references  in  the  records.  There 
are  several,  representing  the  same  or  similar  messages  through  dif¬ 
ferent  psychics.  The  most  notable  are  the  references  apparently 
to  the  painting  and  scene  representing  the  “  Battle  of  the  Elements  ” 
and  the  picture  on  the  easel.  But  I  shall  not  dwell  upon  these.  The 
reader  may  discover  them  for  himself  in  the  detailed  records.  They 
very  much  strengthen  the  evidence,  and  the  manner  of  their  de¬ 
livery  more  or  less  protects  them  from  the  ordinary  suspicions. 
The  instances  mentioned  occurred  under  test  conditions  and  there  is 
no  reason  to  minimize  their  importance. 

One  thing  it  is  important  to  remark:  Not  all  the  facts  in  the 
record  bear  upon  the  personal  identity  of  the  communicator.  The 
important  thing  was  to  ascertain,  if  possible  by  mediumistic  experi¬ 
ments,  whether  the  superficial  interpretation  of  Mr.  Thompson’s 
experience  would  be  borne  out  in  mediumistic  results;  this  inter¬ 
pretation  seems  to  have  been  confirmed  in  the  evidence  both  of 
the  identity  of  the  communicator  and  of  a  connection  between  the 
visions  of  Mr.  Thompson  and  that  communicating  personality. 


CHAPTER  XV 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  died  on  August  26,  1910.  On  the 
next  day,  August  27,  Mrs.  Smead,  living  in  the  moun¬ 
tains  in  one  of  the  Southern  states,  thirteen  miles  from  a  rail¬ 
way,  before  any  newspaper  or  other  news  of  James’s  death  could 
reach  the  place,  had  an  apparition  of  a  man  in  a  long  black  gown. 
She  did  not  recognize  him,  as  she  had  never  seen  a  picture  of 
Professor  James.  On  the  following  Tuesday,  August  30,  she  ac¬ 
cidentally  learned  that  Professor  James  was  dead.  A  Baltimore 
paper  giving  an  account  of  the  fact  had  reached  the  mountain  vil¬ 
lage,  and  Mrs.  Smead’s  son  casually  remarked  to  his  mother  that 
Professor  James  was  dead.  Mr.  Smead  burned  the  paper  before 
Mrs.  Smead  had  had  an  opportunity  to  read  it.  Some  time  later 
she  was  shown  a  picture  of  Professor  James  and  recognized  it  as 
identical  with  the  apparition. 

On  August  31  Mr.  Smead  held  a  sitting,  but  nothing  whatever 
occurred  to  suggest  that  Professor  James  was  present.  Another 
sitting  was  held  on  September  i,  and  almost  immediately  an  at¬ 
tempt  was  made  to  give  the  Greek  letter  Omega,  which  succeeded 
at  the  second  attempt.  The  meaning  of  this  was  not  apparent 
either  then  or  later  until  I  got  the  same  letter  through  Mrs.  Chenow- 
eth  as  the  sign  of  Professor  James.  It  might  have  signified,  as 
this  letter  does  in  literature,  the  last  person  to  have  come  to  that 
side,  but  no  indication  of  this  meaning  was  given. 

There  was  some  further  stumbling  about  with  Greek  letters,  and 
reference  to  a  college  sign,  but  nothing  evidential.  On  September 
2  an  allusion  was  made  to  an  elm  said  to  be  near  Professor  James’s 
“  earth  home.”  Inquiry  proved  that  this  was  true  of  his  Cam¬ 
bridge  home,  a  fact  which  the  Smeads  did  not  know  and  could  not 
have  known.  In  the  meantime  I  had  promptly  made  arrange¬ 
ments  to  have  some  sittings.  The  first  was  on  September  12. 

231 


232  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

There  was  no  attempt  at  first  to  present  Professor  James.  My 
wife  purported  to  communicate  and  referred  apparently  to  a  de¬ 
ceased  brother.  She  was  followed  by  my  father  for  a  few  mo¬ 
ments  and  then  came  a  change  of  control  and  Dr.  Hodgson  came 
to  the  helm,  reporting  the  presence  of  Professor  James  and  Mr. 
Myers.  A  statement  was  made  that  they  had  tried  to  appear  “  at 
the  lady  over  there,”  apparently  referring  to  Mrs.  Verrall,  a  wavy 
line  being  drawn  to  signify  the  ocean,  as  is  usual  with  Mrs.  Smead. 
Many  months  later  I  learned  from  England  that  on  this  very  date, 
some  hours  before  my  sitting,  Mrs.  Verrall  had  had  a  dream  in 
which  she  thought  Professor  James  was  trying  to  communicate,  and 
that  she  had  made  a  record  of  the  dream. 

The  next  day  there  were  several  pertinent  allusions  which  did 
not  reach  the  rank  of  good  evidence,  but  were  interesting,  when 
we  consider  that  Mrs.  Smead  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  Professor 
James  and  his  habits  of  thought.  One  allusion  was  to  his  wanting 
to  believe,  and  to  his  believing  “  only  partially.”  Reference  to  the 
religious  aspect  is  also  significant.  A  pertinent  reference  was  made 
to  the  difference  between  himself  and  Mr.  Myers,  in  the  statement 
that  the  latter  had  written  poetry  and  that  he  himself  had  not.  This 
was  true,  and  the  Smeads  knew  nothing  of  the  facts.  This  was 
followed  by  a  very  natural  remark  about  letting  the  Piper  records 
go  out  of  ”  our  possession,”  pointing  probably  to  the  policy  of  al¬ 
lowing  sitters  to  have  records  which  the  office  did  not  keep.  The 
Smeads  knew  nothing  that  could  make  this  subconscious  knowledge. 
Other  matter  is  such  as  new  experience  might  suggest,  but  is  not 
evidential,  though  an  allusion  or  two  to  the  cause  of  confusion 
shows  that  his  mind  was  turning  to  one  of  the  perplexities  which 
had  troubled  him  during  life. 

On  the  next  day  the  first  references  that  would  suggest  an  at¬ 
tempt  at  evidence  were  to  psychometry,  in  which  it  is  not  known 
that  Professor  James  had  ever  been  interested.  Some  observa¬ 
tions  on  his  own  obstinate  doubts  and  the  influence  of  the  Imperator 
regime  in  the  Piper  case  were  very  characteristic  and  represented 
knowledge  that  Mrs.  Smead  did  not  have.  The  reference  in  this 
connection  to  the  ”  amusement  of  earth-bound  souls  ”  was  evidently 
a,  description  of  the  work  of  Phinuit  and  described  his  character 


PROFESSOR  JAMES  233 

perfectly  in  a  manner  not  at  all  familiar  to  Mrs.  Smead,  but  with 
just  such  knowledge  of  Phinuit’s  work  as  Professor  James  had  in 
life.  A  little  later  reference  was  made  to  the  process  as  a  “  reser¬ 
voir  of  information,”  a  very  characteristic  expression  of  Professor 
James,  not  at  all  known  to  Mrs.  Smead. 

On  September  19  Mr.  Smead  had  a  sitting  in  which  some  refer¬ 
ence  was  made  to  the  “  Huldah  episode,”  which  Professor  James 
had  discussed  in  his  report  and  about  which  he  had  had  some  cor¬ 
respondence  with  the  Smeads.  On  September  21,  another  sitting 
was  held  and  some  pertinent,  but  not  evidential,  remarks  were  made 
about  public  mediums,  suggested  by  a  question  of  Mr.  Smead. 

Just  a  month  after  the  death  of  Professor  James  I  had  my  first 
sitting  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  who  knew  a  little  more  about  him  than 
did  Mrs.  Smead,  but  not  enough  to  affect  most  of  the  material  that 
purported  to  come  from  him. 

At  the  first  sitting,  on  September  26,  1910,  Professor  James  did 
not  try  to  communicate.  He  apparently  wrote  his  name  William 
at  the  end  of  the  automatic  writing,  after  G.  P.  and  Dr.  Hodgson 
had  alluded  to  him  in  various  ways.  G.  P.  alluded  to  the  promise 
that  James  would  give  me  a  sign,  a  circumstance  of  some  signifi¬ 
cance,  since  Mrs.  Smead  had  made  a  similar  allusion,  accompanied 
by  the  sign  Omega,  as  we  have  seen  above,  wholly  unknown  to  Mrs. 
Chenoweth.  He  also  made  a  very  pertinent  reference  to  Mr. 
Dorr,  who  had  been  a  warm  friend  of  Professor  James,  a  fact 
which,  it  happened,  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know.  In  the  com¬ 
munications  of  Dr.  Hodgson,  with  reference  to  him,  there  were  al¬ 
lusions  to  his  own  failure  in  a  somewhat  chaffing  vein  that  would 
be  natural  when  the  two  old  friends  met.  Dr.  Hodgson  said  for 
him,  however,  that  some  papers  marked  for  the  two  Societies  would 
be  found ;  but  nothing  of  the  kind  has  turned  up  among  his  papers. 
An  allusion  to  his  fear  of  a  “  phantom  existence  ”  was  relevant,  as 
he  had  made  remarks  of  this  kind  in  his  life. 

The  description  of  Dr.  Hodgson’s  communications  as  “  jerky  and 
disjointed  ”  was  very  characteristic,  and  closely  connected  with  it  a 
reference  to  his  not  being  a  “  deteriorated  personality  ”  was  very 
striking,  as  it  represented  an  opinion  he  had  had  of  such  com¬ 
munications  before  his  death.  He  had  always  been  discouraged  by 


234  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  disjointed  and  trivial  character  of  the  communications,  and  had 
never  been  induced  to  speak  tolerantly  of  them  until  Dr.  Hodgson 
offered  his  dream  theory  to  account  for  the  confusion  and  frag¬ 
mentary  character  of  the  messages.  There  was  also  a  very  perti¬ 
nent  reference  to  the  use  of  the  word  “  death  ”  and  the  reluctance 
of  the  Imperator  group  to  use  it  through  Mrs.  Piper,  Mrs.  Che- 
noweth  knew  nothing  of  this  peculiarity,  which  was  very  character¬ 
istically  discussed  here,  the  communicator  explaining  that  he  had 
emphasized  it  because  Imperator  had  disliked  it.  It  was  also  char¬ 
acteristic  to  ask  me  to  get  Mrs.  Chenoweth  to  write  down  all  she 
knew  of  him,  this  being  the  policy  of  the  Society  with  Mrs.  Piper 
when  there  was  no  other  way  to  prove  the  exclusion  of  normally 
acquired  knowledge  regarding  specific  incidents.  He  then  gave  the 
sign  Omega  and  stopped  writing. 

I  had  no  more  sittings  till  October  20.  On  that  date  he  wrote 
again.  No  distinct  incident  came  out  that  would  show  by  its 
environment  that  it  could  not  have  any  other  source,  but  most  of 
the  communications  had  characteristic  touches.  The  description 
of  the  attitude  and  manner  of  scientific  men  w^as  very  like  the 
author,  who  adopted  an  apologetic  tone  and  a  sympathy  of  their  sit¬ 
uation  which  w'ere  far  from  the  natural  feelings  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 
Reference  was  made  to  his  own  disappointment  at  not  having  been 
able  to  finish  a  certain  work  that  he  had  undertaken,  which  I  found 
by  inquiry  to  be  true  and  not  known  by  the  psychic. 

On  October  29,  Professor  James  came  first.  In  alluding  to  the 
clearness  of  his  memory  he  approached  the  problem  of  the  con¬ 
fusions  and  mistakes,  a  characteristic  question  with  him  in  life. 
Here  he,  like  other  communicators,  ignores  the  “  dream  theory  ” 
and  refers  all  mistakes  to  limitations  of  the  psychic.  He  cor¬ 
rectly  indicated  that  his  son  was  always  called  Harry  in  the  family, 
a  fact  not  known  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  but  possibly  guessable.  He 
referred  to  a  work  which  he  said  was  nearly  finished.  This  I 
found  to  be  true  and  not  known  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  whatever  we 
may  think  about  its  exposure  to  the  objection  of  guessing.  The 
statement  that  his  set  of  English  “  Proceedings  ”  was  not  complete 
seems  to  have  been  untrue.  The  immediate  reference  to  Sir  Oliver 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


235 

Lodge,  though  not  evidential,  is  characteristic  enough  to  be  gen^ 
uine.  In  the  subliminal  stage  reference  was  made  to  “  a  little 
trunk,  light  yellow,  for  his  affairs  up  stairs  in  an  upper  room,  with 
a  lot  of  little  things  in  it,  papers,  articles  and  various  little  things 
placed  away.”  At  first  no  knowledge  of  such  a  trunk  existed  in 
the  family,  but  later  several  trunks  were  found  in  the  attic  packed 
with  such  material. 

In  the  sitting  of  November  2,  little  was  communicated  that  even 
requires  mention  from  the  evidential  point  of  view.  The  allu¬ 
sion  to  the  fact  that  the  public  thought  him  always  occupied  with 
psychic  matters  when  it  was  not  a  fact  was  true  and  probably  not 
at  all  known  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  The  additional  statement  that 
he  passed  judgment  on  the  work  of  others  was  also  true  and  prob¬ 
ably  not  known  by  the  psychic.  The  reference  to  the  demands  of  a 
university  on  him  as  an  excuse  for  not  occupying  himself  with  the 
subject  and  his  reliance  on  Dr.  Hodgson  for  information  were  ver}’^ 
pertinent,  whatever  value  we  give  them. 

On  November  3,  he  returned  to  the  effort,  and  soon  correctly 
characterized  the  work  of  Dr.  Hodgson  and  his  influence,  and  his 
own  disappointment  with  the  results  when  he  came  to  them  at  first 
hand.  All  this  represents  matter  which  w'ould  not  naturally  come 
to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  with  her  slight  knowledge  of  the  man.  Some 
interesting  wit  was  shown  in  the  passage  which  was  more  charac¬ 
teristic  of  the  two  men  than  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  There  was  an 
interesting  denial  of  having  written  a  definite  letter  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  communicating  it,  because  the  communications  often  seemed 
to  imply  that  there  was  such  a  letter  and  the  public  had  been  sat¬ 
urated  with  the  belief  that  he  had  written  one.  There  is  no  evi¬ 
dence  in  responsible  quarters  that  he  wrote  it,  though  he  did  write  an 
important  letter  after  Dr.  Hodgson’s  death.  There  was  also  an 
allusion  to  the  illegibility  of  the  writing  in  the  Piper  case,  w'hich  had 
been  a  subject  of  discussion  in  life;  the  psychic  most  probably,  I 
could  say  certainly,  did  not  know  the  fact.  The  statement  that 
he  had  much  trouble  with  his  eyes  during  the  last  year  of  his  life 
was  not  correct. 

Then  came  the  following  important  statements : 


236  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  Do  you  recall  coming  to  me  once  in  the  winter  when  snow  was  on  the 
ground  and  we  talked  over  these  things  and  I  gave  you  something  to  take 
away.” 

(I  recall  the  event  very  well.) 

“  At  that  time  we  talked  of  the  cleryman  s  wife  who  had  the  power  of 
talking  automatically.” 

(Yes.) 

“  Since  then  I  have  seen  her  or  rather  since  I  came  into  this  life.” 

(Yes,  good.) 

“  And  I  have  made  an  effort  to  write  with  some  success  but  not  for 
long  at  a  time.  She  does  better  when  you  are  present.” 

(Good.) 

“  Altho  I  find  enough  power  to  make  some  good  expression  when  you 
are  not  there.” 

(Good.) 

“  It  is  more  spasmodic  than  here  but  that  is  largely  a  question  of  en¬ 
vironment  and  companionship  and  desire.  At  that  visit  at  my  home  you 
had  to  hurry  away  at  last  and  some  things  were  left  for  another  time.  I 
had  been  planning  for  a  long  time  to  see  you.  Indeed  I  was  always  plan¬ 
ning  for  a  time  to  talk  more  with  you.” 

In  the  winter  of  1906,  while  a  heavy  snow  was  on  the  ground, 
I  had  called  on  Professor  James,  and  we  had  had  a  long  talk  on 
these  matters,  and  he  had  given  me  a  package  of  French  publica¬ 
tions  to  take  away  with  me.  We  talked  of  Mrs.  Smead  especially 
on  that  visit.  She  is  the  wife  of  a  clergyman,  this  fact  being  known 
to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  but  not  that  Professor  James  and  I  had  talked 
about  her  on  this  or  any  other  occasion,  though  it  might  be  guessed 
that  we  would  do  so,  at  least  on  some  occasion.  But  this  was  the 
only  time  we  ever  talked  about  her.  That  he  had  seen  Mrs.  Smead 
since  he  came  into  the  new  life  has  its  evidence  in  the  sign  of  Omega 
and  perhaps  other  incidents  in  the  detailed  record. 

The  accompanying  statement  that  Mrs.  Smead  does  better  when 
I  am  present  is  true  and  also  not  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  The 
description  of  the  case  as  “  more  spasmodic  ”  than  the  present  case 
was  correct  also  and  not  known.  Then  allusion  to  my  last  call  on 
him  as  a  hurried  one  was  correct  also  and  not  known.  Whether  he 
had  planned,  as  said,  to  see  and  talk  with  me,  is  not  verifiable. 
Then  came  the  following: 

“  I  have  a  recollection  of  meeting  you  first  with  Richard.  Do  you  re¬ 
call  that?  ” 

(I  do  not  at  this  moment,  but  may  later.) 


PROFESSOR  JAMES  237 

“  It  was  at  some  small  gathering  or  small  company  and  after  it  was  over 
we  met  and  talked.  That  was  about  your  own  work  with  Mrs.  Piper.  I 
do  not  recall  whether  that  was  my  first  introduction  to  you.  But  it  was 
about  that  time.” 

(Yes,  I  think  I  recall  something  about  it.) 

“  It  was  not  important  enough  then  to  make  lasting  impressions.” 

(Yes,  I  think  it  was  about  the  time  of  my  talk  at  a  certain  house  in 
Cambridge.) 

‘‘  I  think  so  and  I  was  impressed  with  your  fervor  and  laughed  with 
Richard  about  it  afterwards.” 

(I  expect  you  did.) 

“  I  said  to  him  that  you  would  have  that  high  hope  shattered  after  a 
while.” 

(Yes,  I  was  converted  long  before  Hodgson  and  you  knew  it.) 

“  We  had  been  through  the  stages  of  Imperator  wonder  and  worship 
and  still  had  the  problem  of  Moses’  identity  unsolved.  You  remember 
how  we  were  harassed  by  the  conflicting  statements  and  contradictory 
evidence.” 

(Yes,  perfectly.) 

“  It  was  enough  to  make  us  swear  but  we  stuck  to  the  task  and  hid  our 
chagrin  as  best  we  could.” 

This  is,  in  fact,  a  remarkable  passage.  I  do  not  remember  just 
when  I  first  met  Professor  James.  But  it  is  very  probable  that  we 
became  acquainted  with  each  other  about  1899,  when  I  addressed 
an  audience  at  some  conferences  of  Dr.  James  in  Cambridge  and  at 
a  symposium  at  the  Hollis  Street  Theater  on  the  subject  of  psychic 
research.  A  little  later  I  addressed  the  meeting  of  the  Society  in 
Boston,  which  Professor  James  probably  attended.  I  do  not  re¬ 
member.  If  I  met  him  before  that  period  I  do  not  recall  it.  I 
remember,  however,  that  once,  when  in  Boston  for  some  purpose,  I 
went  with  him  to  a  meeting  of  a  little  post-graduate  club  of  philoso¬ 
phy  students,  to  talk  to  them  on  my  Piper  work. 

The  statements  about  the  Imperator  “  wonder  and  worship  ”  and 
the  difficulties  into  which  the  failure  of  Stainton  Moses  to  prove 
his  identity  and  that  of  Imperator  and  the  group  of  alleged  spirits 
with  him,  are  all  quite  true  and  represent  knowledge  which  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  could  not  have  without  direct  inquiry  or  casual  informa¬ 
tion  of  an  unusual  kind.  She  might  possibly  learn  the  general  state 
of  mind  regarding  the  phenomena  as  a  whole,  but  would  not  get  the 
reasons  here  assigned. 

On  November  10,  in  the  subliminal  stage  of  the  recovery  of 


238  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

normal  consciousness,  the  psychic  remarked  that  Professor  James 
had  a  little  boat  that  looked  like  a  motor  boat  and  that  it  was  at  his 
summer  place.  He  did  have  a  row  boat,  but  not  a  motor  boat,  at 
Chocorua.  Then  immediately  came  the  following : 

“  I  see  a  roll  like  a  diploma.  It  would  all  be  in  French  except 
his  name,  and  it  is  something  very  recently  come  into  his  life. 
It  has  never  been  hung  up,  but  is  still  in  the  roll  as  if  sent  to  him. 
He  takes  it  out  of  a  paste-board  case  and  holds  it  up.  It  is  an 
honorable  thing.  It  pleased  him  very  much.  He  saw  it  only  a 
little  before  he  went  away.” 

Mr.  Henry  James,  Jr.,  the  son,  writes  regarding  this  incident: 
“  He  received  an  honorary  degree  from  the  University  of  Geneva 
in  1909  after  July.  It  was  in  French  and  is  still  in  the  roll.” 

On  November  ii  came  the  following: 

“  Bread  and  milk  and  berries  often  made  the  meal  at  night  in  the 
summer  and  the  vegetable  kingdom  furnished  a  large  part  of  my  food 
always.  I  was  fond  of  apples  and  some  kind  of  fish.  These  may  seem 
remarkable  things  to  return  from  heaven  to  talk  of,  but  you  will  ap¬ 
preciate  their  value.” 

(Yes,  perfectly.) 

“  I  can  see  the  headlines  in  the  newspapers  now  if  this  were  given  out, 
but  if  I  had  said  I  had  broken  bread  with  the  Saviour  or  Saint  Paul  there 
would  have  been  many  who  would  have  believed  it  a  part  of  the  life  of  a 
man  of  my  reputation  in  my  new  sphere.” 

In  reply  to  inquiries,  Mr.  Henry  James,  Jr.  writes:  “  For  some 
years  before  his  death  my  father  was  a  small  eater  and  ate  little 
meat.  He  was  fond  of  apples  and  of  course  had  his  preferences 
in  fish.  He  often  ate  berries  with  milk  and  cream,  and  I  think 
sometimes  mixed  bread  with  them,  but  he  practically  never  drank 
milk.”  The  remarks  about  the  newspapers  are  perfectly  relevant 
for  the  communicator,  but  not  at  all  beyond  the  intelligence  of  Mrs. 
Chenoweth. 

On  November  12  I  asked  a  question  about  a  person,  not  men¬ 
tioning  his  name,  who  had  furnished  him  certain  incidents  in  his 
book  “  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,”  not  named  there,  but 
known  to  me.  I  did  not  get  the  reply  I  wanted,  but  he  named  the 
man  in  the  following  manner,  after  indicating  that  he  had  not 
caught  the  drift  of  my  question  at  first.  “  I  know  what  R.  H.  told 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


239 

me  of  his  own  religious  convictions  after  long  investigations  with 
the  Imperator  group.”  Dr.  Hodgson  was  the  name  I  wanted,  and, 
though  his  relation  to  the  book  mentioned  is  not  given,  the  reference 
to  the  effect  of  the  investigations  of  the  Imperator  group  on  his 
religious  convictions  is  correct  and  was  most  probably,  one  might 
say  certainly,  talked  over  with  Professor  James. 

In  the  communication  he  also  said  that  I  had  told  him  some 
things.  This  was  true  and  wholly  unknown  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

He  also  made  a  spontaneous  allusion  to  the  endowment  fund 
that  I  was  seeking,  and  I  remarked  that  he  had  made  a  slight  gift 
to  it.  His  reply  was:  “  That  is  a  small  sum.  You  refer  to  the 
first  $100  subscription.”  He  had  agreed  to  double  his  fee  of  $10 
a  year  for  two  years,  and  had  paid  the  first  installment.  It  was 
not  $100,  as  it  appears  to  be  here.  But  the  word  ”  first  ”  is  the 
interesting  one  in  the  message. 

On  November  18,  he  referred  to  the  appearances  of  “  deterior¬ 
ated  and  disintegrated  capacity  ”  in  the  messages,  which  had  been 
a  subject  of  much  perplexity  in  his  life,  and  when  I  started  a  dis¬ 
cussion  of  it  by  alluding  to  the  “  dream  or  trance  ”  theory  of  the 
communicator’s  condition  he  replied,  correctly  enough,  that  we 
had  been  told  this  by  Imperator  and  that  “  the  evidence  submitted 
implied  as  much  in  many  instances.”  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  noth¬ 
ing  of  these  facts,  and  whether  they  were  inferable  from  what  she 
might  have  seen  in  allusions  to  the  theory  in  his  report  must  be 
determined  by  each  reader  for  himself.  He  denied  the  existence 
of  a  trance  in  himself,  but  admitted  that  there  may  be  cases  of  it. 
A  little  later  G.  P.  remarked  that  Professor  James  had  “  knocked 
down  some  of  the  nine  pins  ”  and  then  on  the  next  day  he  re¬ 
marked  that  Professor  James  had  “  given  a  black  eye  to  one  of 
Dick’s  theories,”  referring  to  Dr,  Hodgson,  who  had  first  ad¬ 
vanced  it. 

On  November  19,  the  following  came: 

“  Do  you  remember  the  experience  you  had  with  Shaler  and  my  thought 
about  it  ?  ” 

(I  do  not  know  the  thought.) 

“  I  laughed  when  I  read  it  and  I  knew  the  meaning  of  passing  between 
the  light  and  the  connecting  current,  for  we  had  been  taught  at  the  Piper 
light.  It  was  not  so  realistic  a  lesson  but  we  got  it.” 


240  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

This  is  an  interesting  incident  and  nothing  of  it  can  be  ascribed 
to  previous  knowledge  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  except 
that  the  Shaler  incident  could  have  been  known  by  her  subconscious, 
but  not  by  her  normal  consciousness.  At  a  sitting  some  years  be¬ 
fore  in  New  York,  Professor  Shaler  purported  to  communicate. 
An  accident  occurred  in  which  he  got  locked  up  for  nearly  an  hour 
in  the  organism  of  the  medium,  and  quite  a  dramatic  incident  hap¬ 
pened  in  releasing  him.  I  sent  tile  record  to  Professor  James  and 
I  have  no  doubt  he  laughed  about  it,  and  it  is  true  that  the  same 
causes  were  assigned  for  similar  phenomena  through  Mrs.  Piper. 
The  facts  were  not  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

In  the  subliminal  stage  of  the  recovery  he  communicated  in¬ 
directly  the  following: 

“I  can  see  the  front  of  Professor  James’s  house  and  I  see  a  lady*  going 
there  with  flowers  for  Mrs.  James.  She  opens  the  door  and  the  lady 
stays  only  a  few  minutes.” 

(Did  you  say  “  a  man  and  a  lady”?) 

“  No,  just  a  lady.  Perhaps  I  said  and.  She  has  a  big  bunch  of  flowers. 
I  think  she  is  taking  them  for  Thanksgiving.  They  are  big  flowers  and 
look  like  chrysanthemums,  not  all  yellow  but  some  violet  ones.” 

Inquiry  brought  the  following  information  from  Mr.  Henry 
James,  Jr. :  “  A  friend  of  my  mother’s,  a  lady,  made  a  short  call 

just  before  Thanksgiving,  leaving  chrysanthemums.  She  was  let 
in  by  the  housemaid.”  This,  of  course,  was  not  known  by  Mrs. 
Chenoweth. 

On  November  27,  while  controlling  directly,  he  said  that  the  last 
thing  he  remembered  eating  was  a  bit  of  bread  of  which  he  ate  but 
a  taste  or  two,  and  then  referred  to  uncooked  eggs.  My  informa¬ 
tion  in  reply  to  inquiry  was ;  “Not  true  as  to  the  eggs,  but  he  ate 
a  part  of  a  piece  of  bread  the  morning  before  his  death.” 

On  December  8  Professor  James  remarked  that  he  treated  let¬ 
ters  on  the  subject  of  psychic  research  with  the  same  care  and  re¬ 
spect  as  if  he  had  been  engaged  by  the  Society  to  answer  them, 
which  he  was  not,  and  that  the  whole  community  seemed  to  look 
on  him  as  an  adviser  in  these  matters.  He  added  also  that  Mrs. 
James  tried  to  relieve  him  when  they  became  too  much  for  him. 
Inquiry  showed  that  this  was  true,  save  that  Mrs.  James  was  not  the 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


241 

only  member  of  the  family  that  aided  him  in  such  situations.  It 
might  have  been  guessed  that  he  received  many  letters,  but  his  man¬ 
ner  of  treating  them,  which  was  correctly  stated,  would  not  be  so 
readily  guessed.  After  a  failure  correctly  to  answer  a  question  by 
me  he  lost  control,  and  Dr.  Hodgson,  acting  as  amanuensis  for 
him,  mentioned  a  ring  which  was  said  to  have  been  put  away.  In¬ 
quiry  showed  that  he  never  had  a  ring.  But  the  next  incident  was 
more  successful.  He  referred  to  his  father’s  watch  and  stated 
that  he  had  used  it  for  some  time.  Inquiry  showed  that  he  had 
worn  his  father’s  watch  many  years. 

Following  this  was  a  reference  to  an  English  cap  which  he  was 
said  to  have  worn;  it  was  compared  with  Dr.  Hodgson’s,  said 
to  have  been  Scotch.  Dr.  Hodgson  had  had  a  Scotch  cap  and  I 
learn  from  inquiry  that  Professor  James  had  had  several  English 
hats  and  caps. 

I  arrived  at  the  Smeads  on  May  28,  and  learned  that  on  Eebruary 
6  Mrs.  Smead  had  had  a  vision  of  the  Greek  letter  Omega  and  a 
monogram  of  the  letters  F  and  P,  the  initials  of  Mr.  Podmore. 
The  meaning  of  these  they  did  not  understand  until  May  4,  when 
Mr.  Smead  learned  for  the  first  time  that  Mr.  Podmore  was  dead 
and  Mrs.  Smead  was  told  the  facts  because  the  “  Outlook,”  in  which 
his  death  was  mentioned,  was  likely  to  be  read  by  her.  But  the 
Omega  had  no  meaning  to  them.  When  told  of  it  I  recognized  it, 
but  said  nothing,  hoping  to  have  it  come  in  the  writing.  The  let¬ 
ter,  however,  as  readers  will  recall,  was  given  through  Mrs.  Cheno- 
weth  as  Professor  James’s  sign  and  was  also  alluded  to  earlier 
through  Mrs.  Smead. 

In  the  first  sitting  the  communicator  purported  to  be  Mr.  Pod¬ 
more  and  in  the  course  of  the  writing  the  Greek  letter  Omega 
was  drawn  with  a  cross  after  it.  Seeing  that  there  might  be 
confusion  I  asked  who  had  made  that  sign  and  a  little  surprise  was 
expressed  at  my  not  recognizing  the  sign.  In  a  few  moments  I 
was  told  that  it  was  Mr.  Podmore’s.  I  saw  that  this  statement 
was  wrong,  but  quietly  accepted  it  as  if  it  were  correct  and  said 
nothing.  On  June  6,  Professor  James  appeared  for  the  first  time 
in  the  series,  and  after  mentioning  his  son  William,  evidently  in¬ 
tending  his  son  Henry,  however,  as  I  judge  from  the  contents  of 


242  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  reference,  he  twice  wrote  the  Greek  Omega  with  the  cross  in  it 
and  explained  that  it  was  he  tliat  came  with  Mr.  Podmore.  This 
explained  and  corrected  the  erroneous  statement  that  the  Omega 
had  been  given  by  Mr.  Podmore. 

Allusion  was  made  to  his  heart  trouble,  which  Mrs.  Smead  did 
not  know  about,  and  to  his  having  said  little  about  it  to  his  family. 
A  fairly  clear  reference  was  made  to  his  difficulty  in  breathing, 
about  which  Mrs.  Smead  knew  nothing.  He  had  suffered  from 
oedema  of  the  lungs.  Apparently  in  the  message,  however,  refer¬ 
ence  is  to  earlier  periods  of  difficulty  in  breathing,  which  gave  rise 
to  his  retirement  from  college;  the  circumstances  were  explained  in 
the  communications  with  fair  definiteness,  Mrs.  Smead  knowing 
nothing  about  the  facts. 

Then  followed  a  reference  to  the  Piper  case,  which  I  quote  for 
its  pertinence,  omitting  the  confusion. 

“  I  have  so  many  times  thought  of  our  mistaken  views  of  the  whole 
problem  when  we  began  in  the  early  days  before  you  joined  in  our  experi¬ 
ments.  It  was  more  with  some  a  case  of  amusement.  Do  you  know  that 
little  Frenchman  has  not  yet  put  in  his  appearance  to  me.” 

(No,  that’s  good.) 

“No,  I  think  we  will  have  some  interesting  talks.” 

(I  hope  so  and  you  can  report  them.) 

“  I  certainly  will  if  it  is  possible.  I  will  try  to  find  out  why  he  was  so 
stubborn,  yes,  persistent,  in  having  it  as  he  wished.  He  may  try  to  go 
back  to  the  light  now  that  we  are  not  using  it.” 

It  was  correct  that  the  earlier  experiments  with  Mrs.  Piper  were 
attended  by  many  people  more  out  of  amusement  than  for  any 
serious  scientific  purpose,  in  the  early  days  before  I  had  even  heard 
of  the  case,  much  less  joined  in  the  movement.  All  this  Mrs.  Smead 
knew  absolutely  nothing  about.  She  may  have  known  that  the 
control  claimed  to  be  a  Frenchman,  but  of  the  other  incidents  she 
was  wholly  ignorant.  She  was  equally  ignorant  of  the  obstinacy  of 
Phinuit  and  of  all  that  is  implied  in  the  true  and  characteristic  way 
in  which  the  period  and  conduct  of  Phinuit  are  here  described. 
He  then  terminated  his  communications  with  the  sign  Omega  and 
the  cross. 

On  June  7  he  communicated  again,  and  referred  to  “a  moun¬ 
tain  that  looks  like  snow  all  over,”  and  remarked  that  “  it  is  only 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


243 

a  short  distance  from  our  house.”  He  added  that  he  ”  could  do 
no  mental  work  while  there  ”  and  that  “  we  were  nearer  that  moun¬ 
tain  than  you  ”  and  that  he  “  was  glad  to  have  you  talk  with  me 
during  my  sojourn  there.” 

I  recognized  Chocorua  in  the  reference  to  the  mountain  and  his 
house  near  it.  His  summer  home  is  at  the  base  of  that  moun¬ 
tain,  which  is  quite  bare  and  white  in  appearance.  I  spent  the  sum¬ 
mer  in  which  he  died  nine  miles  from  his  place,  and  called  to  see 
him,  though  he  was  too  ill  to  see  me.  Mrs.  Smead  knew  that  he  had 
died  at  Chocorua  and  had  herself  lived  not  far  from  it  many  years 
before;  she  would  therefore  remember  its  appearance.  She  also 
knew  that  I  had  spent  the  summer  not  far  away.  But  she  did  not 
know  that  he  could  do  no  work  there  nor  that  I  had  called. 

He  then  recurred  to  his  son,  apparently  for  the  purpose  of  mak¬ 
ing  a  reference  to  his  city  home,  which  he  mentioned  as  the  place 
where  his  son  was  living.  His  son  is  living  in  the  old  home  in  the 
city,  a  fact  not  known  to  Mrs.  Smead. 

I  asked  him  whose  picture  was  in  the  library,  having  in  my  mind 
the  picture  of  Hodgson  that  he  had  mentioned  through  Mrs.  Cheno- 
weth.  In  reply  he  asked  if  I  meant  the  picture  in  a  frame  on  the 
wall,  and  I  replied  that  I  knew  nothing  about  the  frames.  He 
then  said  he  had  several  in  the  books,  and  in  a  moment  he  said,  the 
telephone  having  rung  in  the  hall  and  possibly  producing  some  con¬ 
fusion  in  Mrs.  Smead’s  mind,  “  I  cannot  remember  just  now,  but 
I  said  I  had  one  of  each  of  us,  Hodgson’s  and  myself  too.” 

I  had  previously  learned  from  Mr.  Henry  James,  Jr.,  that  he  had 
a  picture  of  Dr.  Hodgson  on  the  Wall;  and  after  this  sitting  I 
learned  that  he  also  had  a  painting  of  himself.  Mrs.  Smead  knew 
nothing  of  either  picture. 

On  June  14  he  indicated  that  he  had  been  trying  to  make  his 
presence  felt  to  Mrs.  James,  and  requested  me  to  ask  her  whether 
she  had  not  felt  him.  Inquiry  proved  that  she  had  not  had  any  im¬ 
pressions  of  his  presence.  A  few  minutes  later  he  indicated  that  his 
son  Will,  whose  name  the  Smeads  did  not  know,  had  cared  for  his 
correspondence  and  helped  him  in  his  work  at  the  college.  It  was 
apparent  to  me  that  he  had  his  son  Henry  in  mind ;  and  it  is  curious 
to  note  that  Mrs.  Smead  knew  his  name  but  not  the  name  William. 


2^4  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Inquiry  showed  that  all  the  members  of  the  family  had  at  one 
time  or  another  helped  him  in  his  correspondence,  but  none  had 
helped  him  in  the  college. 

Professor  James  then  referred  to  his  daughter,  of  whose  exist¬ 
ence  Mrs.  Smead  knew  nothing,  and  implied  that  she  was  psychic 
and  might  write.  No  trace  of  psychic  power  in  her  is  known. 

In  the  course  of  his  allusions  to  the  surprise  which  some  people 
felt  on  their  arrival  in  the  other  world,  I  made  the  remark  that  it  is 
easy  to  believe  in  atoms,  but  not  easy  to  believe  in  a  soul.  The  reply 
was  a  confused  but  very  characteristic  discussion  of  the  atomic 
and  ether  hypotheses,  in  which  he  said  that  they  are  mere  hypotheses 
and  aids  to  our  thinking  and  memory,  thus_expressing  scientific  con¬ 
ceptions  which  are  entirely  foreign  to  the  experience  of  Mrs.  Smead. 
During  the  discussion  he  expressed  the  desire  to  discuss  the  ethereal 
body  at  length,  I  remarked  that  it  would  not  be  proof  of  identity, 
and  then  asked  him  if  he  remembered  Pragmatism.  The  reply,  very 
pertinent,  was:  “Yes,  but  not  identity  either.  Only  interesting 
to  the  philosophers.”  This  was  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  case. 
Mrs.  Smead  does  not  know  the  word  “  pragmatism,”  nor  that  Pro¬ 
fessor  James  represented  that  school  of  thought. 

Thus  terminated  the  experiments  for  Professor  James.  At  the 
last  sitting  another  communicator  came.  The  messages  from  Pro¬ 
fessor  James  through  Mrs.  Smead  were  not  any  better  than  those 
through  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  They  are  wholly  different  in  style,  ow¬ 
ing  to  the  different  types  of  mediumship  and  despite  the  fact  that  the 
method  of  automatic  writing  is  identical  so  far  as  we  can  see. 
There  is  less  chaff  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Smead  than  in  the  work 
of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  probably  due  to  the  method  of  development 
and  the  controls,  together  with  the  different  habits  and  tempera¬ 
ments  of  the  two  ladies.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  noticeable 
that  through  Mrs.  Smead  Professor  James  can  get  at  the  gist  of  a 
subject  more  clearly  than  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  though  his  mes¬ 
sages  are  so  fragmentary  that  the  evidence  does  not  seem  to  be  any 
better. 

There  is  one  incident  of  peculiar  interest  and  importance,  which 
adds  much  to  the  value  of  Professor  James’s  messages.  It  is  a  most 
interesting  piece  of  cross-reference.  On  the  twelfth  of  September, 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


245 

1910,  Professor  James,  purporting  to  communicate  through  Mrs. 
Smead,  said  that  he  had  tried  to  communicate  through  Mrs.  Verrall 
living  in  England,  naming  her  and  her  locality,  the  latter  simply  as 
“across  the  water.”  Two  months  later  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
he  again  mentioned  having  tried  through  Mrs.  Verrall.  Later  in¬ 
quiry  in  England  of  Miss  Alice  Johnson,  secretary  of  the  English 
Society,  resulted  in  the  following  report.  Mrs.  Verrall  had  a 
dream  on  September  12,  1910,  in  which  she  felt  that  Professor 
James  was  trying  to  communicate.  My  sitting  with  Mrs.  Smead 
was  held  at  10  a.  m.  of  that  date,  several  hours  earlier  than  London 
time,  so  that  her  dream  must  have  been  that  morning.  A  record  of 
the  dream  had  been  made  by  Mrs.  Verrall.  The  reference  through 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  was  made,  as  indicated,  two  months  later,  but  co¬ 
incides  with  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Verrall  had  been  impressed  with  the 
effort  of  Professor  James.  That  is  to  say,  Mrs.  Verrall  had  had 
the  impression  of  the  presence  of  Professor  James  and  two  mediums 
in  America,  or  Professor  James  through  them,  soon  afterwards 
stated  in  their  trances  that  Professor  James  had  tried  to  communi¬ 
cate  through  Mrs.  Verrall.  No  other  psychics  were  mentioned. 
Both  psychics  knew  that  Mrs.  Verrall  did  similar  work,  but  they 
had  the  same  opportunities  to  know  of  others  also  doing  the  same 
work.  The  most  natural  person  to  mention  was  Mrs.  Piper,  as  her 
reputation  and  supposed  work  at  the  time  would  most  naturally 
provoke  subconscious  guessing.  But  not  a  hint  of  her  appeared 
and  during  the  whole  series  of  experiments  both  psychics  were  either 
remarkably  silent  about  Mrs.  Piper  where  they  had  years  before 
referred  to  her  freely  or  they  acted  as  if  Mrs.  Piper  was  not  active 
in  the  work,  which  was  the  fact,  unknown  to  myself  as  well  as  to 
the  psychics.  Hence  the  coincidence  with  respect  to  Mrs.  Verrall 
is  all  the  more  striking. 

But  there  is  one  set  of  incidents  which  are  perhaps  as  important 
as  any  that  I  know  in  connection  with  Professor  James.  I  must  go 
back  a  little  to  make  them  clear. 

Some  years  ago  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Hodgson  and  before  that 
of  Professor  James,  while  the  latter  was  lecturing  in  England,  a 
reference  was  made  to  him  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth  in  a  somewhat 
pertinent  way.  At  about  the  same  time  Dr.  Hodgson,  purporting 


246  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

to  communicate  through  Miss  Gaule,  said  that  he  had  seen  Profes¬ 
sor  James  in  pink  pajamas  and  that  he  looked  cute  in  them.  I 
wrote  to  Professor  James,  and  received  the  reply  that  he  was 
wearing  “  pink  pajamas  ”  at  the  time.  It  is  not  possible  for  the 
psychic  to  have  known  the  facts,  whatever  we  may  think  about 
guessing.  To  test  the  reaction,  when  he  was  claiming  to  communi¬ 
cate  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  I  once  asked  him  if  he  remembered 
anything  about  “  pink  pajamas,”  and  the  reply  was  in  no  respect 
evidential,  though  apparently  appreciative  of  the  significance  of 
the  mention  of  them.  Later  I  thought  to  try  a  cross-reference  with 
Mrs.  Smead  and  asked  him  to  say  “  pink  pajamas  ”  there.  In  the 
series  of  sittings  held  with  her  there  was  an  entire  failure  to  allude 
to  them. 

But  recently  a  young  boy  in  the  family  of  a  clergyman  developed 
mediumistic  powers ;  and,  both  in  automatic  writing  and  by  crystal 
gazing,  in  messages  appearing  as  visual  writing,  when  I  ivas  not 
present  at  all,  Professor  James  purported  to  communicate,  and, 
mentioning  me,  referred  to  pink  pajamas  and  to  a  black  necktie. 
He  said:  “  I  want  you  to  give  Hyslop  two  pairs  of  pink  pajamas 
and  a  black  necktie  for  Christmas.”  The  parents  referred  to  the 
facts  as  amusing,  without  any  knowledge  of  their  significance.  I 
had  kept  the  incidents  absolutely  to  myself.  They  were  quite  as¬ 
tonished  to  find  how  pertinent  they  were.  The  black  necktie  I 
used  at  sittings,  and  it  had  belonged  to  Professor  James.  The 
reference  to  “  pink  pajamas  ”  explains  itself  as  the  cross-reference 
which  should  have  come  through  Mrs.  Smead.  The  association  of 
his  name  and  mine  with  them  strengthens  the  reference. 

When  we  estimate  the  messages  that  thus  purport  to  come  from 
Professor  James,  we  have  to  admit  that  they  will  disappoint  the 
general  public.  While  errors  and  false  statements  are  not  evidence 
against  the  claim  that  the  effort  originates  from  Professor  James, 
the  public  is  so  ignorant  of  what  the  problem  is  that  it  will,  as  usual, 
commit  worse  errors  in  its  judgment  than  spirits  commonly  do  in 
facts.  Of  course,  we  cannot  claim  that  errors  are  evidence,  unless 
they  are  of  a  certain  type,  but  they  are  not  objections;  they  are 
problems.  The  actual  errors,  however,  are  not  the  primary  weak¬ 
ness  of  the  data  purporting  to  come  from  Professor  James.  It  is 


PROFESSOR  JAMES 


247 

rather  the  paucity  of  the  messages  that  lessens  their  value.  The 
weakness,  moreover,  is  much  increased  by  the  nature  of  the  circum¬ 
stances.  Professor  James  was  so  well-known  to  the  public  gen¬ 
erally  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  facts  whose  value  might 
not  be  nullified  by  previous  knowledge.  A  more  obscure  person 
would  have  far  better  chance  of  transmitting  evidence  of  identity. 
But  there  are  instances  that  cannot  be  discredited  in  any  way.  The 
Greek  letter  Omega  and  the  cross  cannot  be  impeached  except  by 
accusing  me  of  collusion.  The  records  were  known  to  no  living 
person  but  me,  as  I  had  made  them  myself  and  locked  them  up  out 
of  sight.  The  same  assurance  may  be  given  of  the  “  pink  pa¬ 
jama  ”  incident,  my  visit  to  Professor  James  and  the  package,  the 
talk  before  his  “  seminar,”  his  diet,  his  last  meal  from  a  crust 
of  bread. 

There  are  many  facts  as  evidential  as  these,  which  cannot  be 
made  clear  to  general  readers.  They  can  be  appreciated  only  by 
those  who  knew  the  mind  of  Professor  James  intimately  either 
from  personal  acquaintance  or  from  his  books.  But  any  one  who 
examines  these  obscure  incidents  illustrating  characteristic  ideas 
will  find  that,  while  one  or  two  of  them  might  be  obtainable  from 
reading  his  published  writings,  the  large  number  could  not  easily 
be  obtained  except  by  a  minute  acquaintance  with  his  writings, 
which  neither  psychic  possesses. 

On  the  whole  his  evidence  is  not  what  was  desired,  at  least  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  hungry  public.  Fortunately  Professor 
James  himself  remained  true  to  his  ideas  of  the  subject  while  he 
was  living,  namely,  the  need  of  small  and  trivial  facts  to  prove 
personal  identity.  In  the  investigation  of  psychic  phenomena  no 
one  ever  insisted  more  rigidly  than  he  that  personal  identity  is  the 
fundamental  problem  and  that  only  the  remotest  trivial  facts 
would  prove  that  identity.  The  “  pink  pajama  ”  incident  can¬ 
not  be  surpassed  for  evidential  value,  especially  in  its  cross-refer¬ 
ence,  to  anyone  who  intelligently  understands  this  problem.  The 
only  disappointing  thing  for  those  interested  is  the  paucity  of  the 
evidence,  not  its  omission  of  characteristic  phrases. 

The  present  writer  is  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  outcome.  His 
experience  has  been  that  intellectual  minds  have  special  difficulty 


248  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

in  establishing  personal  identity.  Their  preoccupation  is  with 
themes,  which  do  not  lend  themselves  to  sensory  imagery.  The 
pictorial  or  clairvoyant  way  of  representing  thoughts  is  adapted 
to  sensory  imagery,  more  particularly  of  the  visual  type.  The  ab¬ 
stractions  of  philosophic  thought  do  not  }end  themselves  to  ac¬ 
curate  representation  by  this  method. 

One  incident  should  not  remain  unnoticed.  The  newspapers 
published  widely  at  the  time  of  his  death  the  report  that  Professor 
James  had  left  a  posthumous  letter  whose  contents  he  was  to  di¬ 
vulge,  if  he  found  himself  surviving  death  and  it  was  possible  to 
transmit  them.  Allusion  was  made  through  one  of  the  psychics 
to  something  of  the  kind,  but  a  thorough  investigation  showed  that 
there  was  no  evidence  whatever  anywhere  known  to  the  family 
or  anyone  else  that  such  a  letter  had  ever  been  written. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


MARK  TWAIN 

SOON  after  I  had  published  a  review  of  the  work  of  Patience 
Worth,  I  learned  from  one  of  the  persons  connected  with 
that  work,  Mrs.  Emily  Grant  Hutchings,  that  she  was  get¬ 
ting  Patience  Worth  through  another  psychic.  Just  as  the  interest 
in  this  fact  was  beginning  to  grow,  and  when  I  had  formed  my 
plan  for  a  cross-reference  experiment  to  see  whether  I  could  get 
Patience  Worth  myself,  the  whole  work  of  this  new  psychic 
changed.  She  began  to  get  communications  purporting  to  come 
from  Mark  Twain. 

The  psychic  in  the  case  was  a  Mrs.  Hays,  of  St.  Louis.  The 
circumstances,  however,  were  such  that  Mrs.  Hutchings  was  as 
necessary  to  the  phenomena  as  was  Mrs.  Hays.  Both  ladies  had 
to  hold  a  hand  on  the  index  or  planchette  part  of  the  ouija,  other¬ 
wise  it  would  not  move.  The  interest  in  this  fact  lies  in  the  attempt 
to  measure  the  probabilities  that  the  subconscious  of  both  ladies 
could  act  harmoniously  enough  to  spell  any  word  whatever,  to  say 
nothing  of  writing  books  characteristic  of  a  man  whose  works  only 
one  of  them  had  read.  Under  these  conditions  two  volumes  were 
spelled  out. 

Both  ladies  are  in  private  life,  Mrs.  Hutchings  being  a  writer 
on  art  for  the  St.  Louis  “  Globe-Democrat,”  and  Mrs.  Hays  a  writer 
for  various  papers.  No  pecuniary  reward  was  involved  in  the 
work,  except  such  as  might  come  from  the  risks  of  publication. 
No  taint  of  professional  mediumship  is  contained  in  either  case  and 
all  ordinary  objections  may  be  discounted  at  the  outset.  The 
mediums  are  open  to  any  investigation  of  character  that  skepticism 
may  adjudge  desirable.  The  first  question  to  occur  to  the  curious 
inquirer  would  be  whether  the  work  was  not  done  as  a  literary  ad¬ 
venture  merely  pretending  to  come  from  Mark  Twain,  a  sort  of 
jeu  d’esprit  to  help  in  the  advertisement  of  the  work  by  the  claim 
that  it  came  from  the  celebrated  humorist.  The  one  fact  which 


249 


250  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

might  arouse  this  suspicion  is,  that  both  ladies  are  writers  and  are 
not  in  a  trance  when  the  work  is  done.  But  students  know  that 
automatism  is  not  limited  to  trance  conditions.  It  is  quite  common 
in  normal  consciousness.  Any  question  on  this  point  must  be  an¬ 
swered  by  the  critic’s  own  study  of  the  two  ladies. 

Mrs.  Hutchings  had  not  read  anything  of  Mark  Twain’s  until 
after  much  of  the  work  had  been  done.  Mrs.  Hays  was  more  fa¬ 
miliar  with  his  work.  There  are  four  sources  for  a  theory  of  sub¬ 
conscious  memory  to  account  for  the  phenomena,  (i)  Mrs.  Hays 
had  read  something  of  Mark  Twain’s  work.  (2)  She  had  ex¬ 
pressed  the  desire  that  he  would  communicate,  thus  providing  the 
condition  for  a  Freudian  explanation  for  his  appearance.  (3)  She 
has  a  very  keen  sense  of  humor  herself,  with  a  tinge  of  Mark 
Twain’s  drollery,  though  with  less  compass  and  depth.  (4)  She 
also,  like  Mark  Twain,  possesses  a  vein  of  melancholy,  though 
without  his  irony.  Perhaps  it  would  favor  the  same  interpretation 
to  add  that  Mrs.  Hays  has  psychic  powers  in  other  directions,  which 
favor  the  dissociation  necessary  to  produce  work  of  the  kind. 

The  suspicion  that  subconscious  fabrication  might  be  the  explana¬ 
tion  made  it  necessary  to  experiment  in  a  decisive  manner.  The 
conditions  just  mentioned  were  ideal  for  the  theory  of  subcon¬ 
scious  production,  and  without  experiment  for  cross-reference  it 
was  idle  to  maintain  that  the  work  was  supernormal.  There  was 
absolutely  no  internal  evidence  of  the  supernormal,  except  little 
incidents  and  references  in  the  work,  and  perhaps  its  general  char¬ 
acter  involving  a  better  digest  of  his  writings  than  was  normally 
probable.  These  suggested  independent  origin,  despite  the  general 
presumption  that  prior  knowledge  inspired  the  main  subject.  But 
these  points  would  not  be  conclusive  to  the  hard  headed  skeptic; 
hence  it  was  necessary  that  I  should  try  experiments  for  cross-ref¬ 
erence  for  evidence  that  Mark  Twain  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
affair. 

After  about  half  the  sittings  were  over,  Mrs.  Chenoweth  one  day 
remarked  to  me  that  she  had  recently  felt  impressed  that  she  should 
read  Mark  Twain,  adding  that  she  had  never  read  him,  but  thought 
she  ought  to  know  something  of  the  great  American  humorist.  It 
thus  appears  that  she  was  quite  ignorant  of  his  work. 


( 


MARK  TWAIN 


251 

Nothing  that  had  reached  the  knowledge  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had 
been  published  about  the  case.  A  western  paper  or  two  had  men¬ 
tioned  it,  but  the  one  that  had  said  most  about  it  is  not  a  daily  and 
has  a  very  small  circulation  in  the  East.  But  it  would  not  have 
helped  her  any  to  have  known  the  facts.  My  purpose  and  the 
identity  of  the  persons  concerned  were  effectually  concealed  from 
her.  She  had  never  seen  nor  known  the  ladies  and  did  not  know 
that  I  intended  to  experiment  with  them.  Moreover  they  were 
taken  separately  to  the  sittings.  In  her  normal  state  she  did  not 
even  see  either  of  them,  and  she  could  not  see  them  in  her  trance, 
because  they  sat  behind  her,  being  admitted  to  the  room  after  she 
had  gone  into  the  trance.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to  conceal 
their  identity  from  her.  Under  these  circumstances  ten  sittings 
were  held;  I  then  continued  the  experiments  after  the  ladies  had 
left  Boston.  I  took  Mrs.  Hays  first  because  she  was  the  less  prom¬ 
inent  of  the  two  ladies  and  was  evidently  the  main  psychic.  Mrs. 
Hutchings  then  followed  with  her  five  sittings.  At  intervals  be¬ 
tween  the  sittings  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  I  had  sittings  with  the 
two  ladies  themselves,  using  the  ouija  board,  with  a  view  to  giving 
suggestions  at  these  sittings  as  to  what  I  wanted  with  Mrs.  Chen¬ 
oweth,  so  that  I  could  remain  silent  in  the  main  experiments,  and 
also  with  some  hope  that  these  sittings  might  help  in  the  effort 
to  get  cross-reference. 

Evidence  of  the  supernormal  appeared  at  once,  but  there  was 
very  little  hint  of  Mark  Twain  until  several  sittings  had  been  held. 
The  kind  of  work  he  had  done  was  obscurely  indicated,  but  not 
until  the  fifth  sitting  did  specific  evidence  of  his  identity  ap¬ 
pear. 

At  the  first  sitting  for  Mrs.  Hays  the  first  sentence  was:  “The 
Girl  is  a  light.”  This  was  not  only  a  correct  hit,  but  the  use  of 
the  word  “  Girl  ”  was  especially  significant,  as  it  was  the  name  by 
which  Mark  Twain  called  her  with  Mrs.  Hutchings  in  the  ouija 
board  experiments.  Immediately  the  control  remarked  that  “  her 
sensitiveness  was  of  interest  ”  to  me,  which  was  especially  true, 
and  the  first  time  that  so  prompt  a  recognition  of  such  an  interest 
had  taken  place.  In  a  moment  an  allusion  was  made  to  her  father, 
who  is  dead,  and  his  desire  to  communicate  indicated,  and  then 


252  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

some  diagnosis  of  her  powers  followed.  Immediately  reference 
was  made  to  “  hands  and  visions,”  with  the  remark  that  she  “  sees 
things  sometimes.”  Mrs.  Hays  is  quite  clairvoyant  and  has  picto- 
graphic  visions  in  one  type  of  her  work.  Evidently  the  allusion 
to  “  hands  ”  was  a  fragmentary  intimation  of  the  ouija  board  work, 
but  it  was  not  further  developed  at  the  time.  It  was  said  that 
some  of  these  experiences  were  “  written  to  make  clear  to  some 
one  else  that  they  occurred.”  If  this  referred  to  the  work  of  Mark 
Twain  it  was  correct.  It  was  specifically  stated  that  these  experi¬ 
ments  were  “  not  coincidences,”  which  is  particularly  true  of  Mark 
Twain’s  work,  which  consists  of  posthumously  written  stories.  It 
was  stated  that  this  work  has  “  a  real  purpose.” 

Allusion  was  then  made  to  the  mother  and  to  an  Aunt  Elizabeth ; 
the  former  was  dead  and  it  was  not  known  whether  the  latter  was 
dead  or  not,  though  such  a  person  and  relationship  were  correct. 
Then  came  an  intimation  that  a  little  boy  was  present,  a  child  of 
the  sitter.  She  had  lost  a  stillborn  boy  some  ten  years  previously. 
The  sitter  was  said  to  be  quite  nervous.  This  was  true. 

When  I  asked  who  it  was  that  was  doing  the  work  at  home,  un¬ 
derstanding  of  my  desire  was  indicated,  with  the  intimation  that 
identification  would  have  to  be  established  by  messages  “  given 
through  another  source,”  implying  the  need  of  cross-reference.  As 
the  reason  for  this  need,  there  was  made  what  was  tantamount  to 
the  admission  that  the  subconscious  might  color  a  personality  in 
the  transmission:  for  the  communicator  said  that  “there  is  often 
a  play  of  imagination  to  contend  with,  not  always  in  the  mind  of 
the  girl,  but  within  the  minds  of  the  others,”  suggesting  that  more 
influences  than  the  subliminal  of  the  medium  are  likely  to  affect 
the  results. 

Reference  to  her  father  followed,  and  to  his  lack  of  interest  in 
the  subject,  which  was  true  in  his  lifetime.  An  allusion  to  the 
trance  of  the  sitter  was  not  correct,  though  there  were  signs  of  an 
incipient  trance  in  some  tendencies  to  anaesthesia  and  numbness. 
There  followed  a  reference  to  an  aunt  and  to  some  prophetic  power 
of  the  sitter.  The  latter  point  is  correct,  but  the  identity  of  the 
aunt  was  not  indicated.  In  a  moment  came  a  statement  about 
“  Jess,”  which  suggested  vaguely  what  I  wanted  to  ascertain ; 


MARK  TWAIN  253 

namely,  the  influence  of  Mark  Twain;  but  it  was  not  developed 
into  anything  definite. 

At  the  next  sitting  the  first  communicator  gave  no  evidence  of 
his  identity  or  of  the  supernormal,  but  on  a  change  of  control  an 
allusion  to  “  voices  and  sounds  ”  was  made,  which  was  not  espe¬ 
cially  important,  though  relevant,  as  raps  had  once  been  heard 
just  before  the  death  of  the  sitter’s  daughter.  “  Voices  ”  do  not 
form  part  of  the  psychic  experience  of  the  lady,  but  Mark  Twain’s 
daughter  is  a  vocalist.  A  reference  to  “  dexterous  movements  of 
the  hand  ”  was  made,  probably  representing  an  attempt  to  speak 

of  the  work  on  the  ouija  board.  Then  came  an  allusion  to  music 

which  was  very  pertinent,  whether  it  meant  something  in  the  mind 
of  Mark  Twain  or  of  the  lady,  as  the  latter  is  passionately  fond 

of  music  and  often  hears  it,  as  it  were,  in  the  form  of  auditory 

hallucinations,  and  the  former  stated  later  that  music  was  referred 
to  in  the  interest  of  establishing  his  own  identity,  as  the  living 
member  of  his  family  is  a  musician.  But  I  am  not  sure  that  this 
later  statement  by  him  referred  to  this  special  incident.  I  denied, 
in  the  course  of  the  communications,  the  pertinence  of  what  was 
said,  not  knowing  the  meaning  of  the  allusion  to  music. 

It  is  possible  that  the  allusion  to  music  was  a  confused  attempt 
to  mention  his  daughter  and  her  husband,  the  former  of  whom  is  a 
singer  and  the  latter  a  pianist. 

We  had  not  yet  any  distinct  hint  of  what  I  wanted.  The  super¬ 
normal  had  been  vaguely  indicated,  but  nothing  that  would  lead 
me  to  believe  that  Mark  Twain  was  present. 

At  the  next  sitting  the  first  thing  that  occurred  was  an  indica¬ 
tion  that  Mark  Twain  was  present  and  that  the  course  of  affairs 
had  changed.  His  initial  “  M  ”  and  possibly  the  second  letter 
“  a  ”  came  at  once,  and  then  a  message  about  his  purpose,  which 
was  amply  confirmed  in  the  work  at  both  places;  namely,  to  help 
the  world  on  a  vital  matter.  He  had  signified  this  purpose  in 
the  work  with  the  two  ladies.  He  referred  to  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  his  work  at  the  present  light  and  with  the  ladies;  and  to  a 
“  manuscript,”  in  a  statement  which  represented  its  nature  well 
enough  and  coincided  with  what  had  just  been  done  by  the  ladies, 
who  had  submitted  it  to  a  publisher  in  Boston.  He  described  the 


254  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

work  as  “  philosophical,”  which  is  not  strictly  correct,  though  “  al¬ 
legorical  ”  would  have  described  it.  I  had  not  seen  the  work  and 
could  not  tell  its  nature,  nor  had  I  at  that  time  been  told  its  char¬ 
acter. 

For  some  time  the  communications  continued  to  be  pertinent 
though  fragmentary,  containing  an  evident  attempt  to  give  his  name. 
“  M  two  ”  or  “  M  2,”  which  was  very  significant,  came  at  once. 
Then  the  attempt  resulted  only  in  a  possible  reference  to  Stainton 
Moses,  which  I  interpret  “  Moms  ”  to  be,  and  then  Myers,  both  of 
whom  often  help  in  such  crises.  But  “  Ma  ”  came  clearly  enough 
and  then  the  subliminal  made  a  prolonged  effort  to  get  the  full 
name.  “  Ma  ”  came  first  and  then  “  S.  T.,”  which  were  initials 
of  his  name,  the  first  of  his  real  name  and  the  second  of  his  as¬ 
sumed  name.  Then  followed  “  Mark,”  whose  meaning  is  apparent, 
and  the  initial  of  his  second  name.  But  the  subconscious  evidently 
supposed  that  Saint  Mark  was  meant  and  alluded  to  “  Saint.” 
Then  the  name  Mark  was  spelled  out,  though  the  subconscious  evi¬ 
dently  thought  that  Mark  Hanna  was  intended,  as  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
asked  me  if  I  knew  any  woman  by  the  name  of  Hannah.  The 
next  day  Mark  Twain  alluded  to  this  mistake  in  a  humorous  way. 
But  the  most  significant  indication  of  his  identity  was  the  “  M 
two,”  as  it  came  before  the  subconscious  had  any  hint  of  his  iden¬ 
tity.  This  expression  was  a  correct  indication  of  his  name,  which 
he  had  adopted  after  his  experience  as  a  pilot  on  the  Mississippi 
River.  It  came  in  full  later,  but  from  this  time  on  the  case  was 
clear.  It  is  important  that  he  thus  established  his  identity  with 
Mrs.  Hays  before  Mrs.  Hutchings  took  her  place  at  the  next 
sitting. 

At  the  next  sitting  the  most  interesting  phenomenon  is  the  devi¬ 
ation  from  the  usual  course,  which  is  for  only  relatives  of  the  sitter 
to  appear.  Instead,  Mark  Twain  came  at  once.  First  he  tried  to 
give  his  real  name  rather  than  his  nom  de  plume,  which,  whether 
intentionally  or  not,  is  especially  significant,  as  it  did  not  exactly 
continue  the  effort  with  which  the  sitting  of  the  day  before  closed. 
I  got  first  the  capital  letter  “  S  ”  and  then  ”  Sam,”  follow’ed  by 
”  Cl,”  his  name,  as  everyone  knows,  teing  Samuel  Clemens.  From 
the  confusion  with  Mark  Hanna  on  the  day  before,  it  is  evident 


MARK  TWAIN 


255 

that  the  subconscious  had  not  yet  any  inkling  of  his  identity.  With 
the  failure  of  the  effort  to  get  the  full  name  came  the  following 
statement:  “Funny  man  cannot  write  his  own  name  without 
so  much  fuss,  but  when  one  assumes  so  many  titles  one  must  in¬ 
evitably  make  a  mark  in  the  world  of  literature,  even  if  that  lit¬ 
erature  assumes  the  ponderousness  of  Psychic  Research  or  Chris¬ 
tian  Science.” 

This  last  sentence  is  packed  full  of  marks  of  his  identity.  Evi¬ 
dently  the  use  of  the  word  “  mark,”  especially  in  association  with 
the  reference  to  “  titles,”  was  intended  as  a  play  on  his  pseudonym ; 
the  allusion  to  Christian  Science  is  to  the  title  to  one  of  his  works. 
We  must  remember  that  the  subconscious  had  not  yet  caught  on  to 
the  real  name.  Immediately  after  the  sentence  quoted  he  referred 
to  “  Hartford  ”  and  the  statement  added :  “  Place,  not  person.  To 

think  that  any  one  could  take  a  Connecticut  Yankee  for  an  Ohio 
Statesman.  Joke  lost  on  you.  To  think  a  man  of  my  superior 
hirsute  growth  should  ever  be  mistaken  for  the  bald  and  baby  face 
of  him  who  ruled  a  President.” 

Here  again  is  a  statement  packed  full  of  evidence  of  personal 
identity.  It  refers  to  Mark  Hanna,  who  had  the  reputation  of 
ruling  President  McKinley.  Mark  Twain  had  a  very  bushy  head 
of  hair  and  Mark  Hanna  was  bald  and  clean  shaven.  Mrs.  Chen- 
oweth,  of  course,  knew  of  Mark  Hanna  and  possibly  of  Mark 
Twain’s  old  home  at  Flartford,  Connecticut.  But  she  did  not 
know’  normally  that  he  was  communicating  nor  that  his  presence 
had  any  connection  wdth  the  sitter.^  Immediately  came  the  fol¬ 
lowing  spontaneously,  connecting  the  present  with  the  previous  sit¬ 
ting  : 

“  The  2  Marks,  my  name,  exactly  fits  the  case,  the  2  Marks.  Never 
mind.  You  know  who  I  am  now’  and  it  is  all  right  for  me.” 

(I  knew  it  all  along,  but  we  stubborn  scientific  men  have  to  get  it  on 
paper.) 

“  I  forgive  every  Scientist  except  the  Christian,  and  that  is  a  matter  of 
principle  with  me.” 

i  Reference  to  his  “  A  Connecticut  Yankee  at  the  Court  of  King  Arthur  ”  is 
also  probably  intended,  and  was  “lost  on”  J.  H.  H.,  being  noted  by  Miss  Tubby, 
his  secretary,  when  reading  proof  of  this  record. 


256  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  reader  can  see  the  point  of  this  from  the  remark  above  that 
“  2  Marks  ”  came  from  his  experience  as  a  pilot,  and  from  his  rela¬ 
tion  to  Christian  Science,  which  he  treated  contemptuously. 

He  then  referred  to  his  living  in  New  York,  whither  he  had  gone 
after  leaving  Hartford.  He  then  explained,  after  indicating  why 
music  had  been  referred  to  before,  that  his  return  had  the  import¬ 
ance  of  being  intended  to  show  that  he  “  was  not  a  dead  one.”  He 
then  stated  that  this  was  not  his  first  appearance,  and  that  he  had 
“  practiced  some  through  the  hand  of  the  girl,”  this  term  “  girl  ” 
being  the  name  by  which  he  had  called  the  two  ladies  in  his  work 
with  them.  He  then  compared  his  work  with  that  of  Frank  Stock- 
ton,  remarking  that  the  latter  had  better  look  after  his  laurels.  The 
whole  passage  was  full  of  humor. 

After  this  humorous  account  of  his  purpose  he  turned  to  the 
serious  aspect  of  it  and  remarked :  “  I  have  a  way  of  making  light 

of  it  only  that  I  may  better  keep  hold,  but  it  is  the  vital  matter  of 
creation.”  This  reflected  the  serious  aspect  of  his  nature,  which 
was  not  so  well  known  as  the  humorous,  the  serious  trait  being 
known  only  to  a  few,  or  to  those  who  could  read  between  the  lines. 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  had  not  read  any  of  his  works. 

He  took  up  the  humorous  vein  again  in  a  passage  too  long  to 
quote  and  not  otherwise  evidential.  But  he  returned  to  say  that  he 
had  been  somewhat  familiar  with  the  general  subject  of  psychic 
research  before  his  death.  I  knew  this  to  be  a  fact  and  asked  him 
to  give  an  instance  or  two.  He  referred  to  a  “  vision  like  a  mist 
rising  and  forming  a  picture  before  me,”  and  then  to  conversation 
with  some  friends.  I  had  in  mind  his  experiences  in  “  mental 
telegraphy,”  as  he  called  them.  But  he  did  not  mention  these. 
The  sitting  terminated  with  a  reference  to  “  Samuel,”  his  first  Chris¬ 
tian  name,  too  well-known  to  be  evidential. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mark  Twain  began  with  the  effort  to  get  the 
name  of  his  living  daughter,  which  I  did  not  know  at  the  time,  and 
succeeded  in  all  but  the  letter  “  a  ”  in  Clara,  which  he  completed 
later.  He  gave  the  name  Mark  in  connection  with  it,  and  then 
made  an  effort  to  give  the  password  which  he  had  agreed  on  in  St. 
Louis,  but  in  which  he  did  not  succeed  at  the  time,  though  he  got 
the  first  letter  of  it,  which  I  did  not  acknowledge.  I  did  not  under- 


MARK  TWAIN 


257 

stand  it  until  he  explained  what  he  was  trying  to  do.  He  went  at 
it  in  a  roundabout  way.  The  following  long  passage  shows  what 
he  was  doing: 

“  It  is  not  a  safe  thing  for  a  man  to  go  to  a  foreign  land  without  his  pass¬ 
ports  and  I  begin  to  think  this  is  worse  than  any  customs  a  traveler  passes 
through,  for  passports  are  not  enough.  He  must  give  his  ancestry  and 
his  innermost  purposes  to  a  hard  headed  wretch  who  sits  in  command  of 
the  light.  By  the  way  why  do  you  call  the  automatist  a  light  ?  ” 

(It  was  originated  by  the  Imperator  group  beginning  with  Stainton 
Moses  and  the  Piper  case,  and  I  followed  suit.) 

“  It  may  be  to  keep  light  craft  away,  as  the  rocks  and  shoals  make  havoc 
with  all  except  strong  swimmers.” 

(I  understand.  Do  you  remember  the  password?) 

“  You  are  referring  to  work  done  at  another  place  which  was  to  be  re¬ 
peated  here  s  ...  or  anywhere,  if  I  found  myself  able  to  come.” 

(Yes,  exactly.) 

“  And  I  have  known  from  the  first  that  I  must  get  that  through  in  order 
to  prove  that  I  was  the  same  spirit  who  has  been  doing  some  things  at 
home.” 

(Yes,  exactly.) 

“  Now  I  referred  to  passports  with  that  in  mind  and  I  intend  to  make 
good  my  plan  to  help  them.  You  know  whom  I  mean,  the  girls.” 

(Yes.) 

Much  of  this  explains  itself.  It  has  been  true  in  recent  years, 
though  not  before  his  death,  that  a  traveler  has  to  give  his  ancestry 
and  purposes  to  custom  officers  or  government  officials,  as  well  as 
a  passport.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  absolutely  nothing  about  this. 
The  query  about  the  use  of  the  word  “  light  ”  turned  out  to  be 
especially  relevant.  Mrs.  Hutchings  told  me  that  Mark  had  used 
the  word  “  automatist  ”  in  his  work  with  her  and  Mrs.  Hays.  He 
is  only  the  second  person  who  has  ever  used  the  term  through 
Mrs.  Chenoweth,  the  other  being  Mrs.  Verrall,  who  used  it  regu¬ 
larly  in  life.  The  word  “  light  ”  or  “  medium,”  usually  the  former, 
is  the  one  used  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

It  was  a  fair  hit,  not  necessarily  implied  by  my  query  about  the 
password,  to  refer  to  work  elsewhere  and  then  ask  me  if  I  knew 
what  he  meant  by  “  the  girls.”  The  word  “  Girls,”  as  already  ex¬ 
plained,  was  the  one  used  by  him  to  denote  the  ladies.  The  letter 
“  s  ”  is  the  first  one  in  the  password.  This  came  later,  but  the 
consciousness  of  its  importance  is  clear  in  the  passage  here. 


258  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

There  followed  at  once  a  reference  to  the  sitter’s  mother  as  one 
who  helped  with  the  work.  Mrs.  Hutchings’s  mother  was  dead, 
and  in  a  moment  she  apparently  took  control,  but  the  sequel  showed 
that  Mark  was  the  intermediary.  The  only  evidential  incident  in 
her  message  was  a  reference  to  her  head  being  dizzy.  She  had 
died  from  diabetes  and  during  the  last  months  of  her  life  she  had 
been  very  dizzy  much  of  the  time.  The  reference  to  a  child  was 
not  clear  until  a  little  later.  Mark  Twain  assumed  control  for  a 
time  and  then  the  mother  came  and  tried  again  but  got  only  the 
initial  “  S  ”  of  Mark  Twain’s  real  Christian  name.  Then  the  sub¬ 
liminal  came  on  for  a  time,  during  which  the  allusion  to  the  “  child,” 
now  said  to  be  “  a  little  brother  ”  of  the  sitter,  made  it  evident  who 
was  meant  in  the  first  reference.  The  sitter’s  mother  had  lost  a 
little  boy,  who  was,  of  course,  a  little  brother  to  the  sitter.  She 
then  made  a  reference  to  “  Tw'O  Sams,”  which  was  very  important, 
though  wholly  unknown  to  me.  Sam  Jones  and  Samuel  Clemens, 
Mark  Twain,  had  both  come  to  the  ladies  in  St.  Louis. 

The  automatic  writing  then  returned  with  an  attempt  to  give 
the  initials  of  Mark  Twain’s  real  name;  they  were  given  as  “  S. 
C.  C.,”  which  were  incorrect,  though  I  did  not  know  it  at  the 
time.  Later  he  spontaneously  corrected  the  error.  He  then  al¬ 
luded  to  some  experiences  as  he  was  dying,  stating  that  he  had  seen 
his  wife  while  he  was  in  a  semi-conscious  state.  After  some  non- 
evidential  remarks  he  tried  to  correct  the  mistake  in  “  S.  C.  C.,” 
but  failed.  He  then  compared  me  to  P.  T.  Barnum,  saying  under 
oral  control  that  I  “  had  an  elephant  on  my  hands  in  the  work.” 

At  the  beginning  of  the  next  sitting  it  was  evidently  the  mother 
of  Mrs.  Hutchings  who  occupied  the  time  at  first,  though  her  com¬ 
munications  were  invaded  by  an  effort  to  get  the  name  Clara,  which 
was  that  of  Mark  Twain’s  living  daughter.  It  was  evident  through¬ 
out  that  the  communications  were  an  interfusion  of  the  mother 
and  Mark  Twain,  as  they  combined  the  mental  attitude  of  the 
sitter’s  mother  with  some  of  the  affairs  of  Mark  Twain  connected 
with  the  dictation  of  the  two  volumes  through  the  ladies  and  the 
ouija  board.  The  mother  was  probably  the  intermediary.  There 
was  an  allusion  to  a  picture,  said  to  be  a  photograph  of  himself, 
in  the  room  where  the  work  was  done. 


MARK  TWAIN 


259 

This  reference  to  a  photograph  has  considerable  interest.  The 
record  shows  that  it  was  associated  with  his  daughter  Clara.  Now 
Mrs.  Hutchings  had  a  picture  of  Mark  Twain  in  the  room  where 
she  and  Mrs.  Hays  did  their  work.  It  was  a  photograph  taken  at 
the  time  when  he  made  his  lecture  tour  around  the  world,  his  wife 
and  daughter  Clara  with  him.  In  the  communications  he  had  al¬ 
ways  used  the  word  “  home  ”  to  mean  the  place  where  the  com¬ 
munications  were  made  to  the  ladies.  He  was  evidently  referring 
to  his  daughter  in  this  connection  in  order  specially  to  identify  the 
picture,  as  there  were  many  photographs  of  himself  besides  this 
one. 

Then  came  a  reference  to  the  “  writing  board,”  which  definitely 
implied  the  ouija  board,  and  then  an  effort  to  tell  the  nature  of  the 
work  done,  which  was  said  not  to  be  “  personal  messages,  but  more 
like  editorial,”  with  emphasis  on  the  word  “  editorial.”  So  far 
as  this  went  it  was  correct  enough,  and  also  the  further  statement 
that  the  work  was  now  almost  complete.  The  following  is  the 
message  on  the  point  just  mentioned: 

“  You  have  both  been  so  careful  to  eliminate  all  that  would  mar  the 
beauty  of  the  pure  expressions  he  wished  to  use.” 

(I  understand,  and  do  you  know  the  name  of  .  .  .  ?)  [Writing  went 
on.]  “  Book.”  (Yes.)  ”  Of  course  I  do,  for  was  it  not  a  part  of  the 
plan  over  here  to  have  the  complete  work,  name,  title,  size,  description 
given  to  you  about  the  make  up  &c.” 

(Yes.)  [Sitter  nodded  assent.] 

“  It  is  not  a  joke  at  all,  but  a  very  earnest  endeavor  to  make  an  addition 
to  literature,  a  sort  of  posthumous  work,  see?” 

(Yes,  perfectly.) 

“  And  the  fact  that  the  style  and  the  form  may  be  well-known  to  you 
does  not  make  it  less  valuable  spirit  autobiography.” 

(I  understand.) 

“  I  feel  that  it  is  right  to  have  this  go  on,  because  it  will  wake  up  some 
of  the  sleeping  friends  who  had  no  idea  of  the  possibility  of  such  contact. 

“  I  want  the  love  we  feel  to  be  the  incentive  to  further  effort.  Harpers 
people  may  help.  You  will  know  best  what  to  do  about  that.” 

This  is  a  very  accurate  description  of  what  went  on  in  the  ouija 
board  work.  The  dictation  delivered  through  the  board  was  often 
in  incomplete  and  abbreviated  sentences  and  these  had  to  be  filled 
out  by  the  ladies.  There  was  no  doubt  of  what  was  meant,  because 


26o  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  abbreviated  sentences  were  clear,  though  unessential  words  were 
often  omitted.  The  name,  title,  etc.,  were  taken  up  and  decided. 
The  book,  though  abundant  in  humor,  I  understand,  has  also  a 
serious  purpose,  and  though  its  evidential  value  is  marred  by  Mrs, 
Hays’s  knowledge  of  Mark  Twain’s  work,  it  is  said  to  be  very  auto¬ 
biographic  in  respect  to  characteristic  features  in  it.  I  had  not  seen 
it.  The  allusion  to  “  Harpers  ”  is  very  significant  because  _the 
Harpers  were  the  publishers  of  Mark  Twain’s  works.  Mrs.  Chen- 
oweth  knew  nothing  of  this. 

The  communications  continued  in  the  same  vein,  with  charac¬ 
teristic  and  pertinent  statements  which  do  not  require  to  be  quoted 
at  length.  But  a  definite  allusion  was  made  to  the  “  cracked  sen¬ 
tences  that  had  to  be  pieced  together,”  which  I  mentioned  just 
above.  When  asked  what  share  he  would  have  in  the  royalties, 
the  reply  was  that  it  would  be  a  “  share  of  heavenly  percentages,” 
which  was  exactly  the  answer  he  had  given  to  the  same  question 
through  Mrs.  Hays.  He  then  gave  the  initial  letter  of  the  title 
to  the  first  of  the  two  books,  though  it  is  not  stated  that  the  initial 
was  so  intended. 

At  the  next  sitting  he  began  the  automatic  writing  with  general 
communications  that  were  interspersed  here  and  there  with  evi¬ 
dential  touches.  He  spoke  of  the  work  as  having  been  undertaken 
with  a  purpose  to  help  the  whole  world,  which  was  an  avowed 
object  in  the  work  with  the  ladies,  and  he  spoke  of  it  in  an  interest¬ 
ing  manner  as  “  keeping  up  the  connection  in  a  natural  and  super¬ 
natural  way,”  meaning  the  contact  with  the  material  world.  He 
showed  that  he  was  well  aware  of  the  pitfalls  of  fraud  in  any  effort 
to  do  his  work  through  the  professional  type  and  stated  that  he  had 
given  them  a  “  sign  password  which  would  give  the  clear  idea  of 
my  presence.”  It  was  not  exactly  a  password,  but  was  a  sign  to 
prevent  successful  impersonation  by  others  who  had  tried  to  palm 
themselves  off  as  Mark  Twain,  either  in  their  work  or  elsewhere. 

He  then  indicated,  what  was  true  enough,  that  one  message  was 
not  sufficient  to  prove  his  case,  and  that  the  work  which  had  been 
done  at  the  other  center  was  the  kind  he  wished  to  put  in  the  fore- 
ofround,  and  remarked  that  he  ”  sometimes  found  the  flow  of 
words  very  easy  to  start  for  her  and  then  sometimes  I  have  Lo  wait 


MARK  TWAIN 


261 

a  little,  even  when  she  gives  me  opportunity.”  Mrs.  Hutchings 
recognized  that  this  was  correct.  He  then  spontaneously  corrected 
the  error  made  previously  about  the  initials  of  his  real  name,  giving 
them  now  as  “  S.  L.  C.”  instead  of  “  S.  C.  C.”  as  before.  I  did 
not  know  or  recall  that  he  had  a  middle  initial.  I  knew  him  only 
as  Samuel  Clemens.  I  had  not  read  any  of  his  works  but  two, 
and  these  some  thirty-five  years  before. 

He  then  turned  to  some  personal  matters  and  gave  correctly  the 
name  of  his  living  daughter  Clara.  Among  his  personal  state¬ 
ments  were  references  to  his  love  of  the  old  home  in  Hartford  and 
his  choice  of  New  York  for  its  opportunities,  speaking  of  Hart¬ 
ford  as  the  place  where  he  “  had  so  much  happiness  and  pain,”  al¬ 
luding  probably  to  the  loss  of  members  in  his  family,  as  well  as 
financial  losses.  He  then  mentioned  a  ring  with  some  detail,  but  the 
daughter  could  not  verify  it.  Some  further  statements  were  made 
about  his  desire  to  continue  work  through  the  ladies,  and  he  then 
closed  the  communications  with  references  to  his  interest  in  this 
subject  when  living.  But  while  it  was  true  that  he  knew  some¬ 
thing  about  it,  the  special  incident  stated  could  not  be  verified  by  the 
daughter.  He  spoke  of  feeling  the  presence  of  her  mother,  his 
wife,  after  her  death  and  his  endeavor  sometimes  alone  to  have  her 
come  to  him.  It  is  not  known  whether  this  is  true  or  not.  The 
sitting  ended  with  the  name  Margaret  coming  in  the  subliminal  re¬ 
covery.  It  was  the  name  of  Mrs.  Hutchings’s  deceased  mother. 

At  the  next  sitting  Alark  Twain  began  by  expressing  approval 
of  all  such  efforts  and  made  a  humorous  allusion  to  substituting 
communication  with  the  dead  for  “  Catholic  masses  for  the  repose 
of  souls,”  and  then  went  on  to  give  a  very  characteristic  message : 

“  I  am  quite  serious  about  this,  although  I  have  always  had  to 
labor  about  being  taken  seriously.  If  I  preached  my  own  funeral 
sermon  with  tears  rolling  down  my  back,  no  one  would  think  I  was 
at  all  serious  about  it,  and  some  one  would  begin  to  cheer  for  the 
funny  things  I  was  saying,  but  I  really  have  the  revolutionary  spirit 
in  my  bones,  and  it  is  with  me  now,  and  I  think  that  the  work  that 
I  have  done  at  home  and  shall  continue  to  do  will  help  to  revolu¬ 
tionize  some  ideas  of  my  friends,  if  it  does  no  more.” 


262  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


This  passage,  I  understand,  represents  many  actual  experiences 
in  his  life.  He  was  often  cheered  for  humor  when  he  was  serious 
and  he  had  to  tell  his  audiences  so.  I  never  knew  this  and  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  knew  less  than  I  did  about  him. 

The  communicator  then  turned  to  a  personal  matter  and  reit¬ 
erated  that  his  wife’s  face  was  the  first  one  he  saw  when  he  died. 
This,  of  course,  cannot  be  verified,  but  it  is  a  phenomenon  that 
has  been  verified  in  a  few  other  instances. 

There  then  followed  a  long  set  of  communications  intermingled 
with  evidential  hints,  and  characteristic  throughout.  The  ouija 
board  or  “  planchette  ”  was  indicated  as  the  method  of  his  work 
through  the  ladies.  Then  an  allusion  to  an  “  old  spirit  who  now 
and  then  shows  such  a  look  of  age  on  her  face  drawn  and  worn,” 
with  further  reference  to  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Hays,  coincides 
with  the  change  in  Mrs.  Hays’s  face  when  her  mother  may  be  pres¬ 
ent.  What  was  said  about  the  personality  exactly  fitted  her  mother 
and  described  her  characteristic  facial  expression  in  life. 

In  the  subliminal  Mrs.  Chenoweth  saw  a  man  in  white  clothes. 
This  exactly  described  the  habit  of  Mark  Twain.  He  used  to  wear 
a  white  suit  a  great  deal.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  told  me  that  she  knew 
nothing  about  his  manner  of  dress. 

The  ladies  left  Boston  after  the  sittings  which  I  have  just  sum¬ 
marized  and  further  experiments  were  conducted  in  their  absence. 
At  the  first  of  these  sittings  Mark  at  once  recognized  that  the  ladies 
were  not  present,  a  fact  not  normally  known  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth, 
and  after  getting  adjusted  remarked  how  “  good  a  receiver  the  little 
lady  was,”  evidently  referring  to  Mrs.  Hays.  This  was  correct, 
as  the  books  will  show,  though  it  may  be  doubted  if  she  could  do 
systematic  work  of  the  evidential  type  as  well.  At  an  earlier  sit¬ 
ting,  as  well  as  at  a  sitting  with  Mrs.  Hays,  I  had  asked  Mark  to 
give  me  the  name  of  the  personality  who  had  preceded  him  in  his 
work  with  the  ladies.  1  had  Patience  Worth  in  mind,  but  I  gave 
no  hint  at  these  sittings  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  of  what  I  specifically 
wanted.  I  did  not  know  that  Mark  had  been  preceded  by  others 
as  well  as  Patience  Worth.  He  immediately  referred  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  sitting  to  this  request  of  mine  and  after  some  confusion  he 
said;  “  Just  a  little  patience,”  and  paused,  and  then  wrote  “  W.” 


MARK  TWAIN  263 

This  was  almost  the  name  Patience  Worth  in  an  indirect  and  oracu¬ 
lar  manner.  The  interest  in  it  is  the  fact  that  this  is  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  my  work  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  that  the  word 
“  patience  ”  has  been  used  in  the  sentence  asking  me  to  wait.  It 
has  always  been  “Just  a  moment,”  “Just  a  minute,”  “Wait  a 
moment”  or  “Wait  a  minute,”  so  that  it  looks  as  if  “patience” 
had  been  used  as  he  had  used  the  word  “  mark  ”  to  identify  himself 
without  making  it  a  name.  But  immediately  following  this  effort 
he  said  the  “  W  ”  was  wrong  and  evidently  tried  to  give  the  name 
of  “  Rector,”  getting  the  first  three  letters  of  it,  and  then  in  the 
confusion  got  “  J,”  which  was  the  initial  of  the  name  of  the  book 
I  wanted  mentioned.  The  effort,  however,  ended  in  confusion. 
After  a  subliminal  interval  the  automatic  writing  tried  it  again  and 
got  nothing  more  than  the  “  J.” 

At  the  opening  of  the  next  sitting  came  the  letters  “  Br,”  the  first 
two  letters  in  the  title  of  the  second  volume  received  by  the  ladies, 
but  it  was  not  stated  that  they  were  so  intended. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mark  Twain  came  with  oral  control  at  the 
outset.  He  spelled  the  first  three  words  by  letters  and  then  spoke 
the  words  as  wholes.  He  closed  by  giving  his  full  name  and  ad¬ 
dress  with  great  ease:  “Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens,  Hartford, 
Connecticut.”  Neither  Mrs.  Chenoweth  nor  I  had  ever  heard  his 
middle  name.  I  knew  the  rest.  But  the  chief  significance  lies  in 
the  ease  with  which  proper  names  came  in  this  instance  of  oral  con¬ 
trol.  It  suggests  that,  if  we  could  eliminate  the  pictographic  process 
usual  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  we  might  use  clairaudience  more  ef¬ 
fectively  in  getting  proper  names.  It  remains  to  prove  this  possi¬ 
bility  in  practice. 

At  the  next  sitting  another  communicator  came  and  it  was  sev¬ 
eral  sittings  before  I  was  able  to  get  his  name  and  identity  estab¬ 
lished.  It  was  Washington  Irvdng.  He  claimed  to  have  helped 
Mark  Twain  in  his  work  with  the  two  ladies.  But  there  is  no 
evidence  of  it  in  the  record  of  the  material  for  the  two  books.  But 
on  several  occasions  a  friend  was  present  who  called  for  Wash¬ 
ington  Irving  and  he  purported  to  communicate.  As  a  cross  ref¬ 
erence  this  is  not  strong.  But  apart  from  this  there  was  some 
evidence,  not  at  all  striking,  that  Washington  Irving  was  helping 


264  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

in  the  work  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  Whoever  it  was  certainly  knew 
about  the  facts  more  or  less. 

He  referred  to  something  begun  and  discarded,  which  I  learned 
to  be  true,  and  then  to  the  trance,  which  was  incorrect.  He  then 
referred  to  Robert  Ingersoll  and  indicated  that  he  had  been  present 
at  a  sitting,  but  did  not  say  that  he  had  communicated.  Inquiry 
showed  that  a  few  days  before  the  ladies  started  for  Boston,  they 
had  a  sitting  in  Columbia,  Mo.,  and  on  a  question  being  asked  about 
him  were  told  through  the  ouija  board  that  he  was  present  and  had 
come  out  better  than  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  As  Mr.  Beecher  was 
a  communicator  here  a  few  sittings  earlier,  this  association  of  the 
names  has  some  coincidental  value,  all  the  more  when  we  know 
that  Beecher  and  Ingersoll  were  personal  friends,  a  fact  not  known 
to  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  A  pertinent  allusion  was  made  to  religion 
in  connection  with  him  and  a  correct  description  of  his  facial  ap¬ 
pearance,  but  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  enough  of  Ingersoll’s  connec¬ 
tions  and  appearance  from  pictures  to  deprive  the  facts  of  evidential 
importance.  In  the  passage  about  religion  a  comparison  of  the 
difYerent  sects  to  the  rainbow  induced  me  to  inquire  of  his  biog¬ 
rapher  whether  he  had  ever  used  this  simile  in  his  lectures  or  writ¬ 
ings.  The  reply  brought  out  the  fact  that  his  biographer  knew 
of  three  separate  instances  in  which  he  had  used  the  simile,  but 
not  in  connection  with  religion.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  has  never  read 
any  work  or  lecture  by  him  and  does  not  like  his  views,  thinking 
they  were  too  negative. 

Mark  Twain  followed  with  some  communications,  but  they  were 
not  evidential  enough  to  find  a  place  in  this  summary. 

Washington  Irving  apparently  came  again  the  next  day  and 
possibly  tried  to  get  his  name  through,  for  George  Pelham  was 
referred  to  as  apparently  helping  him.  The  interesting  thing  is 
that  George  Pelham’s  real  name  was  given  by  the  communicator 
whom  I  suppose  to  be  Washington  Irving,  as  has  been  done  by 
other  strangers  who  would  not  naturally  know  that  the  pseudonym 
of  Pelham  was  the  regular  one  employed.  An  effort  was  then 
apparently  made  to  tell  me  where  I  had  gotten  the  password  before. 
But  it  is  not  clear  enough  for  me  to  be  sure  of  it.  Two  or  three 


MARK  TWAIN  265 

coincidences  suggest  it,  but  an  allusion  to  a  phantom  rather  tends 
to  nullify  the  hypothesis. 

The  next  day  Washington  Irving  evidently  came  again,  but  he 
did  not  get  anything  through  that  can  be  clearly  described  as  evi¬ 
dence  either  of  identity  or  of  any  special  incidents  in  the  work  of 
Mark  Twain.  The  capital  letter  “  C  ”  and  then  “  Ch  ”  which  came 
were  not  intelligible  at  the  time,  but  probably  refer  to  Charles 
Dickens,  who  reported  later. 

The  next  day  Mark  Twain  got  the  name  of  Washington  Irving 
through  and  cleared  up  the  perplexity  of  previous  sittings  in  that 
respect.  “  Travels  Abroad  ”  were  mentioned  evidently  in  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  mention  “  A  Tramp  Abroad  ”  or  “  Innocents  Abroad.” 
When  Washington  Irving  came  himself  he  finally  got  the  name  of 
Rip  Van  Winkle  through.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know  or  recall 
who  created  Rip,  and  associated  him  only  with  Joseph  Jefferson, 
who  played  him.  She  might  have  heard  about  it  and  forgotten 
it.  She  had,  however,  never  read  it  or  any  other  work  of  Wash¬ 
ington  Irving,  though  she  knew  that  he  had  written  ”  Bracebridge 
Hall.” 

At  the  next  sitting  Charles  Dickens  was  mentioned  in  the  sub¬ 
liminal  entrance  into  the  trance  and  then  followed  automatic  writing 
by  Washington  Irving.  Nothing  was  given  to  prove  his  own  iden¬ 
tity  except  a  casual  allusion  to  John  Jacob  Astor,  saying  that  he, 
Washington  Irving,  was  present  when  Mr.  Astor  communicated 
with  his  wife,  and  then  an  allusion  to  the  older  John  Jacob  Astor. 
There  was  no  hint  of  his  presence  when  the  John  Jacob  Astor,  who 
went  down  on  the  Titanic,  communicated  with  his  wife,  which  was 
several  years  ago.  But  I  turned  to  the  “  Life  of  Washington  Irv¬ 
ing  ”  and  found  that  he  had  been  intimately  acquainted  with  the  elder 
John  Jacob  Astor,  a  fact  about  which  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing. 
But  Washington  Irving  was  not  present  to  prove  his  identity.  He 
was  explaining  the  object  of  Mark  Twain’s  work,  and  he  well  sum¬ 
marized  it  in  the  statement  that  a  group  of  literary  spirits  had  felt 
that  it  was  time  to  abandon  rappings  and  knocking  furniture  about 
and  to  give  some  mental  phenomena  which  might  more  effectually 
prove  to  the  world  what  could  be  done  by  spirit  communication. 


266  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


He  characterized  Mark  Twain’s  object  and  work  in  an  excellent 
manner  and  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  complete  conception  of  it 
without  reading  the  detailed  record.  He  continued  this  subject 
in  the  next  sitting  ^and  discussed  Charles  Dickens  and  Shakespeare, 
indicating  that  their  work  had  been  influenced  by  transcendental 
agencies,  but  denying  that  his  own  work  and  that  of  Mark  Twain 
when  living  were  so  affected. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mark  Twain  came,  announcing  his  presence 
by  his  real  name,  Samuel  L.  Clemens,  and  then  remarked  what  is 
probably  true,  that,  with  the  ladies  he  was  Mark  Twain  and  with 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  he  was  Mr.  Clemens.  He  had  difficulty  saying 
what  he  wished,  but  assumed  oral  control  again  after  it  had  broken 
down  once  and  mentioned  in  a  peculiar  way  the  title  of  the  most 
of  the  books  he  had  written.  He  gave  them  in  the  form  of  a  story 
in  which  the  heroes  of  them  played  a  part. 

The  next  day  Charles  Dickens  came  and  indicated  that  he  had 
taken  part  in  the  work  with  the  ladies,  but  if  this  be  true  it  was  as 
a  silent  partner.  There  is  no  trace  of  his  presence  there.  He  ad¬ 
mitted  that  he  had  tried  to  finish  “  The  Mystery  of  Edwin  Drood  ” 
after  his  death  and  told  where  he  had  done  so.  After  some  diffi¬ 
culty  I  found  that  this  was  true  in  detail.  Though  Mrs.  Cheno¬ 
weth  was  very  fond  of  his  works  and  had  read  many  of  them,  and 
knew  that  he  had  left  an  unfinished  novel,  she  refused  to  read  it 
and  had  never  heard  of  any  attempt  to  finish  it  after  his  death. 
But  there  was  no  evidence  of  his  personal  identity  that  I  could  treat 
as  probably  supernormal,  except  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  just  before 
she  came  out  of  the  trance  and  for  some  time  afterward,  yawned 
a  great  deal.  This  was  only  the  second  time  that  such  a  phenome¬ 
non  had  ever  occurred  in  my  work  with  her  and  I  suspected  that 
Dickens  was  tired  when  he  died.  I  went  to  Forster’s  biography  of 
him  and  found  that  the  symptoms  of  his  approaching  death  were 
great  weariness. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mark  Twain  made  the  attempt  to  give  his  pass¬ 
word.  He  failed  by  the  direct  method  and  Jennie  P.  came  in  with 
George  Pelham  to  try  the  indirect  method.  She  first  mentioned 
the  word  “  Tramp,”  which  was  not  correct,  but  was  the  first  word 
in  the  title  to  one  of  his  books.  Then  the  name  ”  Susy  ”  was  given. 


MARK  TWAIN 


267 

which  was  the  name  of  one  of  Mark  Twain’s  deceased  daughters. 
I  did  not  know  the  fact  and  had  to  ascertain  it  from  the  living 
daughter.  Then  Jennie  P.  said:  “Do  you  know  about  two 
words ;  that  is  a  compound  word,  which  is  apparently  one  which  he 
wishes  to  give  as  the  password.  It  is  something  like  Open 
S  e  s  a  m  e.” 

Sesame  was  the  password  which  he  had  given  me  in  St.  Louis 
and  which  a  few  days  later  he  had  given  me  in  Toledo  through  Miss 
Burton,  (on  whom  I  had  reported  in  Volume  V  of  the  “  Proceed¬ 
ings.’’)  In  her  case  I  got  it  written  in  letters  of  fire,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  air.  She  was  in  a  trance  and  I  was  the  only  person  who 
could  read  it,  which  I  did  not  do  aloud.  It  was  in  pitch  darkness. 
I  mention  it  only  because  of  its  relation  to  the  present  cross-ref¬ 
erence.  It  came  spontaneously  in  Toledo  and  without  my  asking 
for  it  and  without  any  possible  knowledge  of  Miss  Burton  that  I 
had  been  in  communication  with  Mark  Twain.  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
was  equally  ignorant  normally  of  the  facts. 

Before  the  trance  came  on  at  the  next  sitting  I  happened  to  be 
talking  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth  about  the  unethical  action  of  falling 
in  love  with  married  people  or  taking  liberty  with  the  moral  law 
generally  in  such  matters,  and  mentioned  Petrarch  and  Laura,  and 
Abelard  and  Heloise,  thinking  of  Mark  Twain  and  his  commerits 
on  the  latter  two  in  “  Innocents  Abroad,’’  but  being  very  careful 
not  to  mention  Mark  Twain  in  my  remarks.  Immediately  on  his 
beginning  the  automatic  writing,  Mark  Twain  referred  to  the  sub¬ 
ject  and  spoke  of  me  as  a  good  defender  of  his  belief  and  referred 
to  the  case  of  Abelard  and  Heloi’se  by  name,  saying  that  he  did  not 
mean  Petrarch  and  Laura.  I  asked  where  he  had  mentioned  it 
and  after  some  difficulty  and  mentioning  first  “Travels  Abroad,’’ 
he  got  the  correct  title  of  “  Innocents  Abroad.”  On  inquiry  I 
learned  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had  never  read  any  of  Mark  Twain’s 
works  and  had  not  seen  “  Innocents  Abroad,”  and  did  not  know 
that  Mark  Twain  had  ever  referred  to  Abelard  and  Heloise.  She, 
as  a  child,  had  heard  her  parents  reading  “  Roughing  It,”  but  was 
too  young  to  understand  the  humor  of  it. 

At  the  next  sitting  Mr.  Myers  opened  the  communications  with 
some  general  remarks,  saying  that  the  oral  work  would  be  stopped 


268  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


for  a  time  and  then  be  the  next  step  in  the  development  of  Mrs. 
Chenoweth’s  work.  He  then  made  some  evidential  statements 
about  Sir  Oliver  Lodge’s  family  and  his  own.  They  are  not  rele¬ 
vant  to  the  present  matter.  Then  he  was  followed  by  Mark  Twain, 
who  referred  to  Mr.  Beecher  and  Dr.  Funk  relevantly,  and  made 
some  statements  about  smoking  which  repeated  more  or  less  what 
he  had  mentioned  long  before  in  a  message.  But  he  got  through 
nothing  else,  though  I  suspected  that  he  was  trying  to  give  the 
name  of  the  book,  which  I  wanted. 

At  the  next  sitting  another  communicator,  who  did  not  reveal 
his  identity,  referred  to  the  Harpers  as  publishers  of  his  books,  and 
made  a  very  pertinent  observation  about  their  character  as  pub¬ 
lishers.  He  then  mentioned  Mr.  Howells,  who  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Mark  Twain,  saying  that  he  might  have  chosen  him  to 
deliver  the  message,  but  that  trained  minds  would  so  influence  the 
work  as  to  make  it  lose  all  personal  distinctiveness,  and  that  he  had 
chosen  the  ladies  because  they  would  affect  it  less.  This  was  a 
correct  conception  of  the  problem  and  an  admission  that  the  sub¬ 
conscious  or  normal  consciousness  can  deprive  a  message  of  its 
individuality.  After  indicating,  perhaps  in  jest,  a  possible  title 
for  another  book  by  Mark  Twain,  the  communicator  began  the 
effort  to  give  the  name  of  the  book  I  wanted.  I  got  “  Jo,”  which 
was  incorrect,  and  then  “  Jul,”  which  was  also  incorrect.  It  was 
the  Fourth  of  July  and  fire-crackers  were  being  shot  off  outside, 
so  that  noise  disturbed  the  sitting.  Finally  “  Jim  ”  and  “  Jerry  ” 
were  given,  both  wrong,  but  found  later  to  have  a  relevance  which 
at  the  time  I  did  not  recognize.  Then  the  oral  control  came  and  I 
got  “  Jack,”  “  Jas,”  and  then  “  Ja,”  when  Mrs.  Chenoweth  recovered 
normal  consciousness  and  said  she  kept  hearing  “  Jappy.”  As 
“  Jap  ”  was  the  name  I  wanted  I  thought  this  wrong,  but  I  later 
learned  it  was  especially  relevant  and  in  fact  correct. 

At  the  next  sitting,  after  some  general  communications  which 
were  quite  characteristic,  the  attempt  to  give  the  name  of  the  book 
was  resumed.  I  got  “  Jack  ”  again,  and  “  Jasper,”  both  of  which 
I  thought  were  wrong,  and  then  “  Jap  ”  followed  by  “  n,”  which  is 
the  last  letter  in  the  second  part  of  the  name. 

I  afterward  learned  from  Mrs.  Hutchings  that  incidents  were 


MARK  TWAIN 


269 

much  more  evidential  than  I  had  supposed.  “  James  Jasper  Her¬ 
ron  ”  was  the  name  of  the  character  who  gave  the  name  “Jap 
Herron  ”  to  the  book.  “Jacky  ”  was  the  name  of  the  father,  and 
Jasper  had  been  called  “  Jappy  ”  or  “  Jappie  ”  by  one  of  the  char¬ 
acters  in  the  book.  I  had  known  nothing  save  that  “  Jap  Herron  ” 
was  the  title  of  the  book  to  be  published. 

An  interval  of  two  weeks  followed,  during  which  Professor 
Muensterberg  occupied  the  time,  appearing  suddenly  and  without 
suggestion  on  my  part.  It  was  apparently  a  part  of  a  scheme  of 
the  controls  to  have  him  communicate  at  a  certain  crisis  of  present 
events  and  his  own  conversion  to  reason  in  regard  to  the  war.  At 
the  end  of  this  time  Mark  Twain  took  his  place.  As  soon  as  he 
got  control  he  took  up  the  matter  of  cross-reference  and  compared 
his  position  in  it  to  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes  requiring  that  he  should 
have  a  foot  at  each  place  of  communication  while  his  head  was  in 
the  clouds  watching  events  beneath.  The  comparison  was  not 
natural  for  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  though  I  cannot  make  it  specially  evi¬ 
dential.  I  gave  him  a  statement  to  report  in  St.  Louis  through  the 
ladies,  asking  him  to  say  that  I  was  a  cabbage  head.  I  employed 
this  phrase  for  a  double  reason.  First  I  wanted  to  see  the  reaction 
and  secondly  I  wanted  to  see  what  it  might  be  possible  to  say  about 
it  at  the  other  end  of  the  line.  I  knew  it  would  be  a  rude  message 
to  deliver,  but  it  was  one  that  was  calculated  to  appeal  to  his  sense 
of  humor,  and  it  did.  His  reply  at  once  was :  “  How  do  you 

expect  me  to  be  so  blunt.  That  message  shows  no  consideration 
for  cabbages.”  This  answer  could  not  be  surpassed  for  humor 
and  is  Mark  Twain  to  the  core.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  is  not  capable 
of  it.  She  never  indulges  in  humor,  though  she  enjoys  it  when 
presented.^ 

1  Circumstances  which  cannot  be  explained  here,  the  matter  being  too  per¬ 
sonal,  have  prevented  my  getting  the  cross  reference  in  this  instance.  The 
experiment  could  not  be  made  as  I  desired. 

On  the  evening  of  January  26th,  1918,  I  had  a  sitting  with  Miss  Burton,  800 
miles  from  New  York.  Without  any  hint  of  what  I  wanted,  not  mentioning  a 
name  or  asking  a  question,  I  received  three  cross-references.  Among  them  was 
the  word  cabbage  given  several  times  and  accompanied  by  the  word  mark. 
These  were  written  in  the  air  in  letters  of  fire.  The  seance  was  held  in  pitch 
darkness.  The  words  were  purposely  not  recognized  until  written  several 
times,  as  I  wanted  to  avoid  mistake  in  reading  them.  When  I  read  them  aloud, 
three  raps  signifying  that  I  was  correct  were  given. 


270  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

At  the  next  sitting  the  attempt  was  renewed  to  get  the  name 
“Jap  Herron”  after  some  general  communications  by  a  friend 
who  came  to  help  in  this  very  work.  I  got  “  Jap  ”  and  “  Jappy  ” 
and  then  “  He,”  but  no  more  at  this  sitting.  In  the  midst  of  this 
I  got  “  C  ”  and  “  CL,”  which  were  a  part  of  his  name,  but  spon¬ 
taneously  denied  as  incorrect.  “  B  ”  came,  which  was  the  initial 
of  the  name  of  the  second  book,  “  Brent  Roberts,”  but  was  spon¬ 
taneously  said  to  be  incorrect,  which  it  was  for  the  book  he  was 
trying  to  name,  but  correct  for  what  I  also  wanted.  Two  other 
letters  came  which  are  not  clearly  conjecturable. 

Only  occasionally  had  Mark  Twain  tried  to  identify  himself  to 
the  remaining  member  of  the  family,  already  mentioned.  He  had 
mentioned  a  ring  which  the  daughter  could  not  recognize  and  as  the 
situation  made  the  incident  rather  equivocal,  I  resolved  to  broach 
the  subject  when  I  could  and  see  if  my  conjecture  about  it  was 
correct.  The  response  was  immediate  and  my  supposition  was 
supported. 

In  the  original  statement  the  name  of  the  daughter  Clara  was 
given  and  in  a  few  minutes  allusion  made  to  “  Mamma’s  ring,” 
which  was  said  to  have  been  given  to  the  daughter,  worn  a  while, 
put  aside  and  then  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of  the  communi¬ 
cator  himself.  The  context  shows  unmistakably  that  the  most 
natural  interpretation  was  as  I  have  stated  it.  But  on  the  denial 
of  the  daughter  that  it  had  any  meaning  for  her  I  put  the  matter 
before  the  communicator  to  have  it  cleared  up,  but  without  hinting 
at  what  I  suspected  and  without  telling  anything  more  than  that 
it  had  no  significance  to  the  daughter.  The  communicator  then 
said  that  his  wife  was  helping  him  in  that  message  and  that  he  was 
referring  to  her  mother  and  his  wife,  her  daughter.  As  Mark 
Twain’s  living  daughter  would  not  reply  to  inquiries  I  appealed  to 
Mr.  Bigelow  Paine  and  he  ascertained  from  the  living  sister  of 
Mrs.  Clemens,  Mark  Twain’s  wife,  that  Mrs.  Clemens’s  mother  had 
a  beautiful  emerald  and  diamond  ring  which  she  specially  be¬ 
queathed  on  her  death-bed  to  Mrs.  Clemens,  who  constantly  wore 
it  and  for  some  reason  not  known  it  disappeared,  the  sitter  think¬ 
ing  that  it  was  lost.  The  incident  thus  turned  out  to  be  true  sub¬ 
stantially. 


MARK  TWAIN 


271 

However,  I  took  occasion  to  ask  what  the  attitude  of  his  daugh¬ 
ter  was  toward  the  subject,  just  to  see  the  reaction.  At  first  she 
had  shown  cordial  willingness  to  answer  questions,  but  finding 
the  incidents  trivial  she  had  revolted  against  the  matter  and  re¬ 
quested  me  not  to  communicate  with  her  about  it  again.  I  had 
said  nothing  of  this  to  the  psychic  either  in  or  out  of  the  trance, 

and  hence  I  wanted  to  see  what  reaction  I  would  get  by  asking 

what  her  attitude  toward  the  subject  was.  In  general  the  reply 
was  correct,  as  I  could  easily  see  from  her  two  attitudes  as  revealed 
to  me.  But  as  she  did  not  reply  to  further  inquiries  I  cannot  be 

sure  of  details.  Mark  Twain,  however,  evidently  saw  the  situa¬ 

tion  and  resolved  to  press  upon  her  some  evidence  of  his  identity. 
He  mentioned  her  by  name  in  one  sitting  and  inquiry  of  Mrs.  Chen- 
oweth  showed  that  she  not  only  did  not  know  that  there  was  such 
a  person  but  that  she  did  not  know  that  Mark  Twain  had  any 
children  at  all.  In  a  desperate  effort  to  impress  her  in  the  last 
sitting  he  gave  the  following  message : 

“It  is  to  speak  now  of  some  foot  trouble  —  that  is,  some  little  difficulty, 
which  was  his  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  when  he  could  not  walk  as  much 
or  as  well  as  he  used  to,  and  it  was  a  source  of  annoyance  to  him.  It  was 
not  simply  growing  old,  but  something  had  happened  to  his  foot  which  made 
it  necessary  to  be  more  careful  in  walking  and  in  the  choice  of  shoes,  and 
as  he  had  always  been  a  great  walker,  very  active  and  interested  in  all 
things  out  of  doors,  it  was  more  or  less  of  a  cross  to  him. 

“  That  is  one  thing  he  wishes  to  speak  of,  and  another  is  a  small  article, 
a  watch  charm,  and  it  had  some  special  reference  to  some  group  or  body  of 
people.  It  seems  like  a  charm  which  may  have  been  a  symbol  of  some 
order,  but  he  did  not  use  it  all  the  time,  and  as  he  shows  it  here  to-day,  it 
seems  like  a  gift  which  he  now  and  again  looked  at  and  felt  some  pleasure 
in  the  possession  of.” 

The  first  incident  about  the  foot  difficulty  seems  quite  clear.  The 
daughter  failed  to  reply  to  my  inquiries  to  say  whether  it  was  either 
true  or  false,  but  inquiry  of  his  biographer,  Mr.  Albert  Bigelow 
Paine,  brought  the  information  that  it  had  at  least  a  modicum  of 
truth.  It  is  not  exactly  stated.  Mark  Twain  always  had  tender 
feet  that  made  it  important  to  be  careful  in  the  choice  of  footwear. 
It  was  not  due  to  old  age,  but,  so  far  as  Mr.  Paine  knows,  it  gave 
no  special  trouble  near  the  end  of  his  life,  though  he  did  not  walk 


272  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

much  during  the  last  year,  so  that  the  record  is  not  quite  accurate 
at  this  point,  and  yet  near  enough  to  be  significant. 

Mr.  Paine,  however,  writes  that  Mark  Twain  did  have  a  watch 
charm  as  described,  which  was  presented  to  him  by  the  Yale  Greek 
Society.  Whether  he  took  the  emotional  interest  in  it  mentioned 
is  not  verifiable. 

He  then  took  up  the  effort  of  completing  the  name  of  the  book  I 
wanted  and  succeeded  in  getting  Jap  Herron  through  the  subliminal, 
after  failing  by  the  direct  method.  The  experiments  stopped  at 
this  point  and  there  was  no  opportunity  to  try  that  of  Brent  Rob¬ 
erts  and  I  had  to  remain  content  with  the  previous  hints  of  it  that 
came  involuntarily  as  I  thought  at  the  time.  But  as  Brent  Roberts 
was  one  of  the  minor  characters  in  Jap  Herron  its  association  with 
the  effort  to  get  the  name  of  Jap  was  very  natural. 

This  cross-reference  was  tried  and  was  more  or  less  successful 
with  another  psychic,  Mrs.  Salter,  who  has  not  been  mentioned  since 
the  study  of  the  Thompson-Gifford  case.  While  I  was  carrying 
on  my  experiments  in  Boston  with  Mrs.  Hays  and  Mrs.  Hutchings, 
I  wrote  my  secretary,  Miss  Tubby,  in  New  York,  whom  I  did  not 
inform  of  my  work  in  Boston,  to  arrange  for  sittings  with  Mrs. 
Salter.  I  mentioned  no  names  even  to  my  secretary  and  she  was 
as  ignorant  as  the  psychic  of  the  persons  whom  I  wished  to  see  Mrs. 
Salter.  Again  they  were  taken  separately  without  introduction. 
Miss  Tubby  not  knowing  Mrs.  Hays  at  any  time  until  after  the  sit¬ 
tings,  and  not  knowing  that  Mrs.  Hutchings  was  to  have  any  sitting 
until  that  of  Mrs.  Hays  was  finished.  As  there  was  but  a  short 
sitting  for  each,  the  results  were  not  so  striking  for  our  purposes 
as  those  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  The  best  evidence  for  the  super¬ 
normal  in  these  sittings  was  irrelevant  to  the  Mark  Twain  incidents, 
but  in  the  course  of  them  the  initials  of  several  persons  connected 
with  the  case  were  given  and  the  word  “  Jap  ”  came.  Correct 
names  of  places  were  given  connected  with  both  the  story  and  the 
home  of  the  ladies.  While  the  initials  given  were  often  intelligible, 
they  were  not  as  evidential  as  is  desirable.  But  the  name  “  Jap  ” 
was  an  unmistakable  hit  of  some  interest.  Considering  that  this 
immediately  followed  what  occurred  in  Boston,  though  it  was  frag¬ 
mentary  and  did  more  to  prove  the  difficulty  of  communicating 


MARK  TWAIN 


273 

than  anything  else,  the  coincidences  must  be  accorded  some  weight, 
though  taken  alone  their  meagerness  would  deprive  them  of  scien¬ 
tific  value. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  find  some  incidents  from  Mark  Twain 
long  before  the  experiments  were  made  to  test  his  relation  to  Jap 
Herron.  He  came  spontaneously  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth  in  February, 
1913,  and  when  the  subconscious  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth  asked  me  if 
I  knew  any  one  by  the  name  of  Mark,  I  replied  that  I  did,  not 
thinking  of  Mark  Twain,  but  Mark  Hanna  whom  I  might  expect 
to  be  mentioned  by  a  recently  deceased  friend  of  my  own.  When 
the  automatic  writing  began  the  following  came. 

I  ought  to  tell  you  first  who  I  am  for  fear  you  might  be  under 
the  impression  that  you  are  talking  to  Saint  Mark,  or  some 
other  great  ones.  I  am  S.  C.  and  think  it  about  time  I  dropped 
the  nom  de  plume  which  gave  me  a  following;  namely,  Mark 
Twain. 

(Thank  you.  I  know.) 

I  see  so  little  to  make  me  better  comprehend  what  the  meaning 
of  it  all  is  that  I  am  not  in  the  least  tempted  to  mount  a  pulpit  and 
preach  to  the  lost.  I  only  know  that  I  am  saved  and  that  I  have 
a  few  choice  friends  along  with  me  and  we  are  not  worrying  about 
the  state  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  most  wonderful  to  be  able 
to  see  so  much  at  once.  That  is  the  one  thing  that  stands  out  more 
clearly  to  me.  It  seems  as  if  we  had  gained  a  double  capacity  to 
see.  Do  you  understand  what  I  mean  by  seeing? 

(No,  not  exactly.  Explain  a  little.) 

Two  worlds  instead  of  one.  We  see  double,  in  other  words,  and 
no  one  seems  intoxicated  either. 

(Does  the  old  physical  world  look  as  it  did  before  passing?) 

Sometimes  it  looks  pretty  much  the  same.  It  depends  on  where 
you  float.  Wall  street  looks  very  much  like  —  shall  I  say  what 
I  think —  (Yes)  Inferno.  It  seems  to  have  no  saving  grace  as 
an  atmosphere  about  it,  but  it  always  does  look  like  that  to  a  man 
who  is  not  on  the  inside.  I  find  a  smoky  atmosphere  plenty  good 
enough  for  me. 

I  think  I  ought  to  file  a  protest  against  some  of  the  malevolent 


274  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

criticisms  that  have  been  made  in  my  absence.  Do  you  know  how 
I  have  been  hashed  up  since  I  died? 

(No,  I  do  not.  I  suppose  I  shall  be  done  up  when  I  get  over 
there.) 

So  we  are  in  the  same  boat.  Let’s  talce  a  pipe  and  smoke  away 
our  trouble. 

(What  made  you  choose  the  simile  of  a  pipe?) 

Nothing  particular,  only  because  I  knew  you  would  not  smoke 
and  I  would  do  it  all  myself.  You  may  learn  when  you  get  over 
here.  You  never  can  tell  how  soon  a  thing  like  a  great  truth  may 
dawn  upon  a  poor  benighted  man. 

(Well,  I  hope  it  will  not  be  one  kind  of  smoking.) 

I  have  not  yet  seen  the  sulphur  pit,  but  I  presume  that  there  is 
one.  Most  of  us  would  be  glad  of  a  chance  to  toss  an  enemy  in  on 
the  sly,  but  so  far  I  have  restrained  my  desire  and  made  a  great 
effort  to  keep  the  peace  and  not  to  mar  the  joy  of  heaven. 

The  communicator  then,  after  some  further  statements,  went  on 
to  mention  Mr.  Howells,  who  had  been  his  friend,  and  spoke  of 
their  relation  to  each  other  in  rather  affectionate  tones  and  then 
tried  to  mention  some  incidents  in  proof  of  personal  identity,  but 
was  not  successful.  The  passage  quoted  above,  however,  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  Mark  Twain  in  its  humoresque  features  and  it  is  given 
for  that  reason  rather  than  for  the  forcefulness  of  its  evidence, 
though  it  has  this  characteristic:  for  readers  must  remember  that 
at  this  time  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had  not  read  a  line  of  Mark  Twain’s 
;  writings.  She  merely  knew  that  he  was  an  American  humorist. 
His  allusion  to  smoking  will  be  understood  by  readers  who  knew 
his  habits  in  that  respect,  and  not  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  He 
was  an  inveterate  smoker  and,  knowing  that,  I  put  my  question  as 
I  did  to  see  the  reaction.  It  was  characteristic  and  humorous 
enough.  He  used  to  say  when  living  as  reported  of  him,  that  he 
never  smoked  except  when  he  was  not  asleep. 

The  discussion  of  this  topic  need  not  be  detailed.  The  problem 
is  not  the  general  one  of  spiritistic  explanation,  but  the  connection 
I'etween  the  experiments  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  the  work  of 
kirs.  Hutchings  and  Mrs.  Hays.  The  introduction  showed  that 


MARK  TWAIN 


275 

the  evidence  for  the  presence  of  Mark  Twain  in  the  work  of  the 
two  ladies  would  not  be  accepted  by  the  scientific  students  of  psy¬ 
chology.  They  might  be  wrong  in  saying  that  Mark  Twain  was 
or  is  not  the  author  of  the  volumes  claimed,  but  their  skepticism 
would  have  the  defence  that  Mrs.  Hays’s  subconscious  memory 
might  be  adequate  to  the  production  of  the  result  assuming  that 
her  moderate  reading  of  Mark  Twain  might  endow  it  with  the 
material  for  the  work.  The  believer  would  certainly  have  to  con¬ 
tend  and  to  prove  that  this  reading  and  desire  on  her  part  for 
Mark  Twain  to  communicate  had  not  impressed  the  subliminal 
with  the  subject  matter  for  both  reproduction  and  fabrication  of 
the  results.  The  skeptic  would  undoubtedly  have  the  advantage 
in  the  argument  from  this  point  of  view,  and  it  was  this  fact  which 
made  my  experiments  so  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  limiting  the 
claims  of  destructive  criticism. 

It  is  true  that  there  may  be  incidents  and  general  characteristics 
in  the  books  that  transcend  any  knowledge  conveyed  by  Mrs.  Hays’s 
reading.  Only  a  patient  comparison  of  her  work  with  that  of  the 
works  of  Mark  Twain  while  he  was  living  would  discover  any  such 
evidence  of  his  independent  influence,  and  even  then  this  view  would 
represent  largely,  perhaps,  the  opining  of  the  student  skilled  in  the 
detection  of  fine  points  of  internal  criticism.  But  we  should  always 
be  without  a  criterion  of  the  limitations  of  Mrs.  Hays’s  subcon¬ 
scious  mind.  That  of  Mrs.  Hutchings  can  be  excluded  because 
she  had  not  read  Mark  Twain  until  after  he  had  done  much  of  his 
work  through  the  ouija  board.  But  the  mind  of  Mrs.  Hays  can¬ 
not  thus  be  exempt  from  suspicion.  Her  reading  and  desires  offer 
the  skeptic  all  the  leverage  he  wishes  for  an  excuse  against  foreign 
intelligence  and  in  favor  of  any  amount  of  credulity  about  the 
subliminal.  But  he  has  to  be  refuted. 

I  have  called  attention  to  one  consideration  which  this  argument 
of  subconscious  reproduction  and  fabrication  ignores.  It  is  the 
fact  that  neither  lady  alone  could  move  the  ouija  board  and  that 
it  would  move  only  when  each  had  a  hand  on  it  at  the  same  time. 
This  increases  the  improbabilities  that  the  two  subliminals  would 
act  harmoniously  toward  a  given  result  in  any  other  sense  than  as 
passive  media  for  the  influence  of  outside  intelligence.  But  the 


276  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

advocate  of  subconscious  origin  must  face  and  solve  this  problem 
evidentially  prior  to  his  assertion  of  his  own  hypothesis.  Nor  will 
it  suffice  to  say  that  this  harmonious  action  is  conceivable.  That 
may  be  true.  What  we  must  have  is  evidence  that  it  is  a  fact  and 
it  will  not  be  easy  to  produce  any  evidence  for  it,  perhaps  not  any 
easier  than  for  spirits.  I  shall  not  dwell  on  this,  however.  It  is  a 
vantage  ground  to  which  we  may  return  when  we  require. 

I  said  that  the  primary  problem  was  not  regarding  the  existence 
of  spirits  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  I  have  said  many  times 
that  I  regard  this  as  proved.  Here  we  are  concerned  with  the 
question  whether  the  books  by  Mrs.  Hutchings  and  Mrs.  Hays  have 
the  same  explanation  as  the  work  done  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 
Whether  spirits  are  the  first  thing  to  consider  is  a  distinct  question, 
and  we  have  first  to  decide  whether  the  same  explanation  applies 
I  to  both  results.  If  you  insist  that  secondary  personality  or  sub- 
i  conscious  memories  explain  the  work  of  the  two  ladies  you  cannot 
I  apply  that  hypothesis  to  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  If  you 
'  account  for  Mrs.  Chenoweth’s  work  by  telepathy  you  cannot  apply 
,  that  to  the  work  of  the  two  ladies,  Mrs.  Hutchings  and  Mrs.  Hays. 
Neither  one  of  these  hypotheses  covers  the  ground.  Besides,  you 
would  find  that  telepathy  does  not  explain  all  of  the  facts  in  the 
Chenoweth  records,  so  that  you  have  an  independent  difficulty  in 
those  alone.  In  any  case  you  have  to  reject  both  secondary  per¬ 
sonality  and  telepathy  from  the  explanation  of  the  whole.  You 
cannot  combine  them  for  the  whole,  for  telepathy  will  not  explain 
all  of  the  records  in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  You  might 
speciously  say  secondary  personality  in  the  work  of  the  two  ladies 
and  telepathy  in  that  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  but  you  would  be  con¬ 
fronted  by  the  fact  that  telepathy  will  not  explain  the  latter  and 
that  secondary  personality  may  have  its  limitations  in  certain  char¬ 
acteristics  and  details  of  the  books.  Consequently,  if  you  are  seek¬ 
ing  a  single  hypothesis  to  cover  the  ground  you  must  find  it  in 
normal  sources ;  namely,  in  conscious  fraud  on  the  part  of  the 
ladies  and  a  similar  hypothesis  in  regard  to  my  own  work  with  Mrs. 
Chenoweth.  I  do  not  object  to  this  theory.  I  shall  only  demand 
scientific  evidence  for  it.  The  slightest  investigation  into  the  char¬ 
acter  and  work  of  the  ladies  will  dispel  illusions  about  their  relation 


MARK  TWAIN 


277 

to  it,  and  though  I  may  not  be  able  to  vindicate  myself  from  suspi¬ 
cion,  I  am  open  to  investigation. 

The  fact  is  that  there  is  only  one  hypothesis  that  covers  the 
ground  without  complications,  and  that  is  the  spiritistic.  The  in¬ 
fluence  of  Mark  Twain  would  explain  the  work  of  the  ladies, 
whether  you  have  the  proof  of  it  or  not.  The  communication  of 
Mark  Twain  is  the  only  explanation  of  the  work  of  Mrs.  Cheno- 
weth.  You  cannot  import  telepathy,  inference,  and  suggestion 
into  it  to  account  for  the  whole  of  it,  and  whatever  explains  it  will 
explain  the  work  of  Mrs.  Hutchings  and  Mrs.  Hays.  There  is  one 
hypothesis  that  explains  both,  and  so  far  as  I  can  see  only  one 
hypothesis  explains  both  sets  of  phenomena  consistently.  That  is 
the  spiritistic  and  the  one  that  has  all  the  superficial  claims  to  ap¬ 
plication.  There  should  be  no  doubt  in  any  intelligent  mind  that 
the  spiritistic  explanation  is  the  more  natural  one,  and  that  all  sorts 
of  devices  would  have  to  be  accepted  to  evade  the  application  of 
it.  I  shall  not  further  summarize  the  evidence  for  this  conclusion. 
It  has  been  vindicated  in  so  many  other  cases  that  it  requires  little 
further  evidence  to  sustain  it  and  I  take  it  for  granted  in  the  nature 
of  the  phenomena. 

The  important  thing  is  the  light  which  it  throws  on  cases  which 
would  otherwise  be  referred  to  secondary  personality.  The  value 
of  cross-reference  for  establishing  the  nature  of  such  cases  is  un¬ 
mistakably  reinforced  by  the  present  one.  It  adds  one  more  in¬ 
stance  to  the  class  which  might  have  been  doubtful  before.  It 
confirms  again  what  was  supported  in  the  case  of  Doris  Fischer, 
though  not  as  an  instance  of  multiple  personality,  but  as  one  which 
the  psychiatrist  and  psychologist  would  refer  to  dissociation. 
Without  the  experiments  in  cross-reference,  the  work  of  Mrs.  Hays 
and  Mrs.  Hutchings  would  be  referred  to  secondary  personality 
and  to  this  explanation  only.  But  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  work 
of  Mrs.  Chenoweth  has  that  explanation,  because  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  results  were  obtained.  The  facts  sustain  the  hy¬ 
pothesis  for  the  work  of  the  ladies  which  applies  to  that  of  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  and  the  confident  a  priori  speculations  of  the  psychol¬ 
ogist  must  be  challenged.  The  main  lesson  is  that  we  begin  a  gen¬ 
eralization  which  may  alter  the  judgment  in  regard  to  all  such 


278  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

phenomena.  Secondary  personality  can  no  longer  be  dismissed 
as  requiring  no  further  investigation  and  we  cannot  be  allowed 
entire  freedom  in  theories  of  brain  cells  as  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  facts,  though  they  are  always  complicated  with  any  other  causes. 
Psychology  will  have  to  revise  either  its  theories  or  its  facts.  At 
any  rate  a  doubt  is  established  about  the  dogmatism  of  the  psy¬ 
chiatrist  and  the  student  of  normal  psychology.  The  ramifications 
of  the  conclusion  will  prove  as  great  as  in  the  Doris  Fischer  case, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  possibly  extended  influence  of  discamate 
agencies  on  the  living  where  they  care  to  exercise  it. 

One  warning,  however,  I  must  issue  against  all  critics  of  the 
spiritistic  theory.  In  this  instance,  as  in  all  others  where  I  defend 
it,  I  am  not  unconscious  of  the  objections  which  these  critics  will 
bring  in  regard  to  the  characteristic  nature  of  the  messages.  There 
is  a  prevailing  belief  that  a  man’s  personality  or  personal  charac¬ 
teristics  should  be  clearly  reflected  in  the  communications.  This 
assumption  is  held  alike  by  lay  believers  and  scientific  critics,  more 
frequently  by  the  latter.  I  usually  find  laymen  more  sensible  about 
this  matter  than  the  scientific  man.  But  at  least  for  a  chance  to 
criticize,  the  skeptic  seizes  on  uncharacteristic  incidents  or  expres¬ 
sions  for  disqualifying  the  evidence.  But  if  he  supposes  that  I  do 
not  concede  such  features  in  the  record  when  advocating  the  spir¬ 
itistic  hypothesis,  he  very  much  mistakes  my  position.  I  can  excuse 
the  illusion  in  laymen,  but  not  in  scientific  minds.  No  doubt  we 
have,  and  perhaps  must  have,  something  characteristic  of  the 
communicator,  if  only  in  the  veridical  character  of  the  incidents 
told  in  proof  of  personal  identity,  but  tricks  of  language  and  style 
need  not  be  present  at  all.  The  skeptic  who  assumes  that  the  lack 
of  characteristic  phrase  and  style  is  against  the  spiritistic  interpre¬ 
tation  does  not  know  his  business.  The  fundamental  assumption 
of  the  theory  is  that  the  discamate  personality  is  subject  to  the 
limitations  and  modifying  influence  of  the  medium  through  whom 
he  gets  expression.  And  there  is  more  than  this.  He  also  is  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  influence  of  other  minds  than  that  of  the  psychic.  Not 
only  must  all  messages  pass  through  the  mind  of  the  medium  and 
be  subjected  to  the  coloring  efiPect  of  her  organic  habits  of  thought 
and  language,  but  they  must  also  often  pass  through  or  be  affected 


MARK  TWAIN 


2jg 

by  the  mind  of  the  control,  and  in  some  instances  by  two  or  three 
other  minds  acting  as  helpers  or  intermediaries.  The  result  on 
which  we  base  our  conclusion  is  a  compound,  an  interfusion  of  two 
or  three,  or  even  half  a  dozen  minds.  No  critic  should  approach 
the  subject  without  recognizing  that  it  is  this  that  he  has  to  refute 
and  that  he  cannot  do  it  by  remarking  that  messages  are  “  un¬ 
characteristic.’’  They  are  always  this  to  a  certain  extent  and  rarely 
reflect  the  personality  of  the  communicator  in  its  purity.  It  should 
not  be  expected.  Only  an  ignorant  person  would  assume  its  purity, 
after  investigating  the  facts. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  subconscious  of  Mrs.  Hays  afifected  the 
contents  of  the  book  and  that  the  subconscious  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
afYected  the  contents  of  Mark  Twain’s  messages.  This  is  unavoid¬ 
able.  Several  minds  are  probably  involved  in  both  products  and 
an  expert  student  of  the  phenomena  would  easily  discover  this 
interfusion  of  personality  in  the  result.  It  is  the  prominent  evi¬ 
dence  in  the  case  that  escapes  explanation  by  the  subconscious  alone, 
even  though  it  may  be  colored  by  that  influence.  The  same  law 
is  discoverable  in  the  language  and  thought  of  any  normal  writer 
who  is  appropriating  style  and  thought  of  his  past  reading.  Hence 
I  shall  make  the  critic  a  present  of  any  objections  based  upon  the  im¬ 
purity  of  the  communications.  The  spiritistic  hypothesis  is  based 
upon  the  incidents  which  transcend  explanation  by  the  mind  of  the 
medium  alone,  even  though  the  result  is  highly  colored  by  it. 

I  must  warn  readers,  however,  against  assuming  that  the  story 
itself  has  anything  to  do  with  the  conclusion  here  adopted.  I  do 
not  care  whether  it  is  a  good  or  a  poor  story,  whether  it  has  literary 
merits  or  not,  whether  readers  of  it  can  detect  Mark  Twain  in  it  or 
not.  It  is  probable  that  some  who  are  very  familiar  with  the  man, 
his  style  and  habits  of  thought,  and  perhaps  scenes  of  his  boyhood, 
may  find  traces  of  the  man,  but  the  circumstances  prevent  us  from 
attaching  any  special  weight  to  these.  My  own  knowledge  of 
Mark  Twain  as  a  writer  is  too  small  to  pronounce  judgment  on 
these  points  and  I  should  regard  them  merely  as  corroborative  and 
secondary  evidence  if  I  found  them.  But  the  telling  facts  for  any 
hypothesis  must  be  the  cross-references  which  unmistakably  asso¬ 
ciate  him  with  the  books.  It  is  in  Mrs.  Hutchings’s  introduction 


28o  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


to  the  story  that  we  find  psychological  traces  of  work  which  only 
trained  psychic  researchers  would  recognize,  and  then  the  cross- 
references  add  the  rest.  The  one  thing  that  must  dawn  on  us  is 
the  repeated  evidence  that  cases  which  superficially  show  no  traces 
of  supernormal  influences  yet  yield  to  experiment  proving  that 
superficial  indications  cannot  be  trusted  and  we  may  have  to  allow 
for  supplementary  influences  from  another  world  where  we  least 
suspect  them. 

Authorities  differ  in  regard  to  the  vraisemblance  of  the  story  to 
Mark  Twain.  His  biographer,  while  conceding  that  the  Introduc¬ 
tion  contains  incidents  like  Mark  Twain  and  some  unlike  him,  sees 
absolutely  nothing  in  the  story  of  Jap  Herron  that  would  remind 
him  of  Mark  Twain.  The  reviewer  in  the  “  New  York  Times  ”  finds 
some  things  like  Mark  Twain,  but  regards  the  story  itself  as  in¬ 
ferior  to  his  work.  It  is  probable  that  people  would  differ  widely 
on  these  points,  sometimes  according  to  bias  one  way  or  the  other 
about  the  alleged  origin  of  the  story,  but  more  frequently  because 
of  the  unavoidable  differences  of  conception  which  people  have  of 
any  man  whatever.  But,  as  remarked  above,  this  makes  no  differ¬ 
ence  to  the  hypothesis  defended  here.  We  are  neither  asserting 
that  the  story  is  like  Mark  Twain  nor  assuming  these  conditions  in 
the  communications  that  would  make  it  probable  that  his  char¬ 
acteristics  would  be  reflected  in  the  story.  In  the  contrary,  we 
assume  that  the  story  would  be  greatly  influenced  in  the  transmis¬ 
sion  by  the  subconscious  of  the  medium  and  also  by  the  mind  of 
the  control  and  of  any  other  helpers  in  the  process  of  transmission. 
It  might  actually  lose  all  the  specific  features  by  which  we  should 
recognize  him.  Through  Mrs.  ChenoAveth  he  said  he  simply  had 
to  think  and  that  his  thoughts  had  to  be  interpreted  by  the  medium. 
This  process  of  interpretation  would  greatly  alter  any  message 
transmitted,  and  the  man  who  does  not  allow  for  this  aspect  of  the 
hypothesis  is  not  discussing  the  problem  we  have  before  us,  but 
some  a  priori  product  of  the  imagination  with  which  we  are  not 
concerned.  We  may  be  wrong,  but  the  hypothesis  here  advanced 
is  the  one  we  ask  to  be  met,  and  that  is  that  the  subconscious  of 
the  medium  is  an  important  factor  in  the  results,  and  thatjhe  evi- 
dence  from  cross-reference  fits  in  with  this,  even  to  the  extent  of 


MARK  TWAIN 


281 

supposing  that  the  stimulus  may  be  wholly  spiritistic  while  the  con¬ 
tents  may  be  wholly  subliminal.  We  have  no  proof  that  this  is 
strictly  true  in  this  special  case,  but  the  fact  that  no  trace  of  Mark 
Twain  may  be  visible  to  most  readers,  or  even  all  of  them,  does 
not  affect  the  hypothesis  here  advanced.  It  would  affect  it  if  the 
process  of  communication  were  as  simple  and  direct  as  the  ex¬ 
pectant  reader  assumes,  though  in  normal  life  a  story,  unless  re¬ 
ported  verbatim,  will  undergo  modification  when  transmitted 
through  another  mind.  With  a  symbolic  or  a  new  method  of  trans¬ 
mission  or  communication,  and  a  number  of  minds  to  reckon  with 
in  the  process,  we  may  little  expect  to  find  clear  characteristics  of 
the  person  alleged  to  be  the  chief  communicator,  while  evidence 
that  cross-reference  supplies  may  force  us  to  admit  the  origin  of 
the  facts,  though  we  have  to  discount  their  purity  because  of  the 
complex  conditions  affecting  their  communication.  This  is  fully 
illustrated  in  the  Doris  Fischer  case.  Personal  characteristics  of 
the  communicator,  while  they  added  to  the  proof,  did  not  deter¬ 
mine  it,  because  cross-reference  makes  us  independent  of  that  aspect 
of  the  problem.  Hence  the  important  thing  here  is  the  repetition 
of  cases  which  tend  to  show  that  phenomena  otherwise  assignable 
to  secondary  personality  may  be  proved  to  have  a  supernormal  or¬ 
igin  by  the  method  of  cross-reference. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 

Dr.  funk  was  well  enough  known  to  make  it  possible 
for  the  public  and  scientific  men  to  propose  certain  ob¬ 
jections  to  alleged  communications  from  him.  As  we 
have  to  discount  anything  which  the  medium  certainly  may  have 
known  about  an  alleged  communicator,  the  person  who  is  well- 
known  pays  the  penalty  of  skepticism  regarding  his  efforts  to  prove 
his  identity.  Dr.  Funk  was  well-known  to  the  American  public 
as  a  publisher  and  this  exposes  any  alleged  efforts  on  his  part  to 
communicate  to  objections  based  either  upon  fraud  or  casual  knowl¬ 
edge  on  the  part  of  the  psychic.  But  it  was  not  his  reputation  as 
a  publisher  that  constitutes  the  greatest  difficulty  about  alleged  com¬ 
municators.  Mediums  can  hardly  keep  themselves  informed  about 
every  well-known  publisher  or  professional  man.  It  would  be  a 
waste  of  time  and  money  to  do  so.  Their  custom,  so  far  as  it  has 
been  practised  at  all  and  that  is  not  one-hundredth  as  much  as 
Philistines  suppose  and  assert,  has  been  to  get  information  about 
persons  interested  in  the  subject  and  likely  to  appear  as  investi¬ 
gators  with  some  degree  of  constancy.  And  they  have  been  so 
limited  in  their  power  to  get  information,  even  in  such  cases,  that 
the  practice  of  it  had  to  be  given  up  as  not  paying  for  itself.  Gos¬ 
sip  was  a  more  fruitful  source  of  information  than  organized 
efforts. 

Now  Dr.  Funk  happened  to  be  known  all  over  the  country  as 
interested  in  the  subject  and  as  experimenting  whenever  he  could. 
So  he  was  exposed  more  than  the  average  person  to  any  predatory 
instances  alleged  of  mediumistic  detectives,  and  we  have  to  allow 
for  the  objections  of  the  Philistine  in  this  respect.  He  was  the 
author  of  two  books  on  the  subject,  “The  Widow’s  Mite”  and 
“  The  Psychic  Riddle,”  both  rather  widely  read,  and  probably  fa¬ 
miliar  to  many  mediums  interested  in  learning  what  he  had  to  say. 

282 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


283 

Mrs.  Chenoweth,  whose  work  we  shall  quote  here,  had  not  read  or 
seen  either  one  of  them,  though  knowing  he  wrote  the  first  one.  She 
knew  of  Dr.  Funk’s  interest  in  the  subject,  and  the  consequence  is 
that,  if  she  had  been  so  minded,  she  could  have  ascertained  much 
about  the  man  to  use  in  her  work.  But  in  her  trance  nothing  came 
that  can  be  accounted  for  by  reference  to  “  The  Widow’s  Mite,”  ex¬ 
cept  the  name  of  Mr.  Beecher  connected  with  it  and  that  not  cer¬ 
tainly,  and  neither  work,  as  remarked,  had  been  seen  by  her.  The 
facts  which  I  shall  quote  here  will  not  be  explicable  by  referring 
them  to  any  such  source.  Whatever  objections  are  made  must  be 
based  on  the  liabilities  of  casual  knowledge  or  deliberate  effort  to  ac¬ 
quire  the  desired  information,  as  I  had  no  means  of  giving  the  facts 
pertinence  to  any  friend  of  his  present  as  a  sitter  except  myself,  and 
I  was  too  well  known  to  the  psychic  to  plead  cogency  on  the  score  of 
relevancy  to  myself.  But  there  is  always  the  reply  to  skeptics  at  this 
point,  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  has  so  constantly  succeeded  under  test 
conditions  that  the  skeptic  has  no  vantage  ground  on  which  to  rest 
and  it  would  be  useless  expense  on  her  part  to  seek  information  con¬ 
sciously.  Beyond  that  her  honesty  cannot  be  impeached,  and 
though  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  estimating  evidence,  it  throws 
the  burden  of  proof  on  the  skeptic  who  would  suggest  or  assert 
fraud.  The  facts  which  we  shall  quote  will  doubly  obligate  such 
minds  to  produce  evidence  for  their  doubts. 

Dr.  Funk  died  April  4th,  1912,  and  his  first  appearance  through 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  was  on  October  2nd,  1912.  Fie  did  not  give  his 
name  at  first,  but  mentioned  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  and  spoke 
of  Brooklyn  as  his  home,  a  fact  not  known  by  the  psychic,  though 
she  did  know  his  relation  to  New  York.  Soon  afterward  he  gave 
his  initials.  This  assured  me  who  it  was  and  his  full  name  came 
later. 

Soon  after  giving  his  initials,  he  remarked  that  he  had  not  been 
the  fool  or  dupe  that  some  of  his  associates  thought  and  on  being 
asked  by  me  who  it  was  that  thought  him  so,  having  conjurers  in 
mind,  the  reply  was  his  “  business  associates  ”  and  I  asked  who 
else.  To  the  latter  question  I  received  a  remarkable  answer.  He 
mentioned  the  “  Editor  of  ‘  The  Sun,’  ”  referring  to  the  owner  and 
editor,  who  died  before  himself,  and  said  that  he  had  found  out 


284  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

that  his  editorial  ridicule  of  Dr.  Funk  had  been  mistaken.  The 
special  pertinence  of  this  was  not  known  to  the  psychic.  I  pur¬ 
sued  my  question  and  got  a  reference  to  the  “  Clergy,”  which  was 
correct  enough,  but  not  in  my  mind  and  then,  after  alluding  to 
scientific  scoflfing  at  him,  possibly  known  to  the  psychic,  he  said 
he  had  done  things  I  would  not  do.  This  was  quite  correct  and 
was  in  all  probability  not  known  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  Asked  to 
say  what  kind  of  phenomena  he  investigated,  he  replied  “  dark 
and  strange  and  physical,”  meaning  dark  seances  and  physical  phe¬ 
nomena.  This  was  true.  He  had  investigated  much  of  this  type 
and  I  none  of  it.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know  that  I  had  not 
done  this,  though  she  might  have  known  that  Dr.  Funk  did  some 
of  it.  He  then  alluded  spontaneously  to  his  having  got  better 
material  than  some  of  his  friends  and  indicated  his  difference  cor¬ 
rectly  with  Dr.  Hodgson,  and  remarked  that  they  could  both  now 
afford  to  laugh  about  it.  All  this  was  correct  and  not  known  to 
the  psychic.  He  had  obtained  much  better  material  than  his  im¬ 
mediate  friends  and  had  a  sharp  controversy  with  Dr.  Hodgson. 

The  next  week,  October  7th,  he  reported  again  and  began  with 
some  very  characteristic  things  which  one  could  not  appreciate 
without  reading  the  detailed  record,  and  that  is  too  long  to  quote, 
referring  to  his  interest  in  certain  aspects  of  the  subject,  but  not 
in  abnormal  psychology.  Then  he  referred  to  Prospect  Park 
and  the  cemetery  where  he  was  buried.  He  was  familiar  with 
Prospect  Park  in  Brooklyn  and  I  learned  afterward  that  he  was 
buried  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  not  far  from  Prospect 
Park.  Neither  Mrs.  Chenoweth  nor  myself  knew  this  fact.  He 
then  referred  to  having  left  a  posthumous  letter  whose  contents 
he  was  to  reveal  after  death.  This  was  true  and  absolutely  un¬ 
known  to  any  one  but  myself  and  his  son.  After  a  few  more 
characteristic  things  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  re¬ 
garded  as  a  “  hot  headed  enthusiast,”  which  was  true,  and  added 
as  truly  that  this  was  “  far  from  the  truth.”  Then  came  the  in¬ 
teresting  statement. 

“  I  accepted  much  tentatively,  to  disarm  the  psychic  and  produce 
results,  but  I  reasoned  out  the  evidence  calmly  enough  alone  later.” 
He  then  referred  to  the  crudeness  of  the  conjurer’s  “ignorance 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


285 

of  the  laws  of  psychology.”  This  message  represented  the  exact 
facts  about  the  man,  and  the  point  is  that  they  were  quite  con¬ 
trary  to  all  that  was  believed  of  Dr.  Funk.  He  was  supposed  to 
be  the  dupe  of  mediums  and  totally  unacquainted  with  the  methods 
of  investigation,  and  to  be  swallowing  everything  that  came  along. 
This  was  an  illusion,  and  he  was  quite  willing  for  the  public  to 
think  that  he  was  deceived,  if  only  he  could  get  at  the  bottom  of  a 
case.  He  was  worth  a  dozen  conjurers  in  investigating  most  cases. 
The  contrary  opinion  would  have  been  all  that  casual  information 
could  have  brought  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

He  then  referred  by  name  to  his  brother  and  to  his  brother’s 
son,  though  the  manner  of  doing  it  is  not  strongly  evidential.  On 
the  next  day  he  referred  in  the  subliminal  stage  of  the  trance  at 
once  to  the  Bible  and  other  literature  of  the  same  type  among  dif¬ 
ferent  nations,  specifying  the  Veda  as  one  of  them.  He  was  in¬ 
terested  in  comparative  religions.  Immediately  he  mentioned 
Luther  R.  Marsh  and  Miss  Dis  Debar,  using  V  by  mistake  for  R 
in  the  first  name,  and  correctly  described  Mr.  Marsh  and  his  rela¬ 
tion  to  this  subject,  stating  at  least  one  thing  not  known  to  the 
public  about  him.  Miss  Dis  Debar  had  been  connected  with  Mr. 
Marsh’s  debacle  in  Spiritualism  and  this  was  well  known  to  the 
public  and  might  have  been  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  as  even  con¬ 
fessed  by  the  subliminal,  but  she  did  not  know  how  pertinent  it 
was  for  Dr.  Funk  to  mention  the  incident. 

When  the  automatic  writing  began  he  confessed  that  communi¬ 
cation  was  not  so  easy  as  he  expected  to  find  it  and  he  then  gave 
an  excellent  statement  of  what  the  process  is.  ”  Thought  pro¬ 
duces  images  and  unless  the  thought  is  concentrated  on  some  par¬ 
ticular  thing,  the  image  quickly  melts  into  other  images,  a 
kaleidoscope  movement,”  and  having  difficulty  in  spelling  the  word 
“  kaleidoscope  ”  he  asked  if  he  had  spelled  it  phonetically.  This 
last  remark,  or  rather  question,  was  very  pertinent  because  of 
his  great  interest  in  phonetic  spelling,  a  fact  not  known  to  the 
psychic,  but  known  to  me.  The  process  of  communication  described 
is  another  version  of  the  pictographic  method  and  well  put,  having 
perfect  accordance  with  what  we  know  of  the  remote  processes  in 
ordinary  streams  of  mental  imagery,  especially  in  deliria.  Com- 


286  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

parison  with  the  kaleidoscope  is  excellent  and  Mrs.  Chenoweth’s 
knowledge  of  psychology  is  too  defective  to  be  so  accurate.  What 
he  said  of  his  interest  in  phonetic  spelling  was  better  than  the 
mere  reference  to  it,  as  it  represented  his  reasons  for  his  interest  in 
it  and  these  reasons  were  not  common  public  property,  but  were 
correctly  stated. 

He  spoke  of  a  few  converts  to  it  and  I  asked  who  one  of  them 
was,  thinking  of  Mr.  Carnegie.  But  his  answer  was  to  “  Big 
Stick,”  using  this  expression  as  a  reference  to  Theodore  Roosevelt 
whom  he  had  converted  to  the  need  of  reformed  spelling.  But 
this  was  publicly  known.  When  I  pressed  him  for  the  name  I  had 
in  mind,  he  failed  to  give  it,  but  made  some  pertinent  personal 
statements  about  the  value  of  getting  names  on  which  he  differed 
from  other  investigators.  His  attitude  on  this  matter  was  un¬ 
known.  The  passage  also  describes  the  usual  method  of  the  sitter 
about  this  and  other  explicit  incidents,  indicating  the  preference 
for  spontaneously  given  messages,  which  he  correctly  enough  said 
was  the  method  I  employed. 

He  then  gave  me  a  sign  which  he  would  use  elsewhere  in  proof 
of  his  identity,  just  after  having  said  that  proper  names  were  al¬ 
ways  difficult  if  it  was  important  to  get  them,  but  easier  when  there 
was  nothing  to  gain  or  lose  by  giving  them,  a  fact  of  considerable 
truth  in  this  work.  This  sign  I  shall  not  mention  here.  But 
suffice  to  say  that  I  got  it  soon  afterward  by  means  of  the  ouija 
board  through  two  private  people  who  did  not  know  it  and  who 
did  not  know  that  he  was  giving  it  as  his  sign.  I  carefully  re¬ 
frained  from  explaining  it  to  them.  Then  I  got  it  through  Miss 
Burton  who,  though  not  a  private  psychic,  did  not  know  anything 
about  either  the  man  or  his  sign,  and  was  not  told  that  I  got  it  in 
my  work  with  her.  It  was  given  along  with  his  name  and  both 
written  in  the  air  in  letters  of  fire. 

The  next  day,  in  alluding  to  this  sign  he  made  use  of  the  term 
”  riddle  ”  in  referring  to  the  problem,  and  asked  me  if  it  meant 
anything  to  me.  I  recognized  at  once  the  pertinence  of  it,  and 
as  fortune  would  have  it  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about 
its  relevance  in  connection  with  the  identity  of  Dr.  Funk,  as  he  had 
used  it  in  the  title  to  one  of  his  books. 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


287 

He  then  proceeded,  as  he  said,  to  give  “  some  memories  of 
phonetic  conquests  ”  alluding  to  converts  in  reformed  spelling,  hav¬ 
ing  previously  alluded  by  the  expression  “  the  Big  Stick  ”  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  He  began  with  the  capital  letter  C  and  after  some 
confusion  got  the  name  Charles.  1  knew  what  he  desired,  but 
kept  still  and  did  not  help.  After  some  struggle  and  confusion, 
he  got  the  name  Carnegie.  This  was  correct  and  though  it  was 
not  known  by  the  psychic  that  Mr.  Carnegie  had  any  relation  to 
Dr.  Funk,  it  might  have  been  known  that  he  was  interested  in 
phonetic  spelling.  As  soon  as  he  got  out  the  name  I  asked  the 
communicator  if  Mr.  Carnegie  had  not  been  asked  to  do  some¬ 
thing  else  and  the  answer  came  promptly  that  he  had  been  asked 
to  endow  psychic  research.  Dr.  Funk  had  done  this  three  times, 
but  w^as  rebuffed  in  it,  the  last  time  very  emphatically.  After  ex¬ 
plaining  what  he  had  done  and  how  his  request  had  been  received 
he  added  significantly: 

“  It  is  so  stupid  to  wait  till  a  thing  is  assured  before  you  give  it 
sustenance.  I  think  the  uses  to  which  rich  men  apply  their  wealth 
are  subject  to  inquiry  as  to  whether  they  are  not  suffering  from 
hallucinations.” 

While  not  evidential  this  is  too  true  to  leave  unquoted.  In  a 
moment  he  again  took  up  his  own  method  of  experiment  and  gave 
a  characteristic  message. 

Gullible  was  not  exactly  what  I  should  have  been  called,  but  I  saw  noth¬ 
ing  to  be  gained  by  spoiling  the  case  at  the  start  by  suggestion  or  manner 
of  di.sbelief.  Let  the  spirits,  if  there  are  any,  have  their  own  way  and 
take  what  comes  and  do  the  sifting  of  evidence  in  your  own  conditions. 

(Exactly.) 

I  knew  that  I  got  many  things  passed  me  that  I  could  discount,  but  I 
would  never  have  gotten  it  if  I  had  done  as  the  world  thought  I  ought  to 
have  done. 

(That’s  right.) 

God  confounds  us  with  combinations  of  good  and  ill,  weak  and  strong, 
in  every  expression  of  His,  and  psychic  matters  are  not  exceptions  to  the 
rule.  I  thank  God  I  leaned  out  far  enough  to  catch  the  light  of  the  dawn 
before  I  came  into  the  full  glory  of  the  eternal  day. 

This  was  exactly  his  method  and  belief  about  the  subject,  and  he 
was  regarded  by  people  who  neither  knew  him  nor  his  methods  as 


288  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  gullible  ”  and  deceived.  He  simply  laughed  at  public  opinion  and 
went  on  with  his  work. 

He  had  raised  the  questions,  in  our  conversations,  of  “  demons  ” 
or  evil  spirits,  as  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  as  possibly  ex¬ 
plaining  the  facts  we  had,  and  so  I  asked  him  at  this  point  about 
the  matter  to  see  the  reaction.  The  answer  was  not  clear,  thoush 
he  gave  an  answer  clear  enough  to  what  he  supposed  I  meant  by 
the  query ;  namely,  that  “  mistakes  were  not  demoniacal,”  and  re¬ 
ferred  to  them  as  like  crossed  wires  in  the  telephone,  a  conception 
which  exactly  represents  what  involuntarily  occurs  at  times. 

He  did  not  communicate  any  more  until  January  14th,  1913.  He 
began  on  that  occasion  with  general  observations,  not  evidential  at 
first,  except  as  they  were  generally  characteristic,  and  then  turned 
to  this  subject  and  its  effect  on  the  future.  He  said: 

There  will  be  no  mighty  revolution  which  disintegrates  and  destroys  the 
civilization  of  the  Christian  Era,  but  noiselessly  as  the  morning  dawns 
the  work  will  awake  and  the  sun  of  demonstrated  truth  will  be  high  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  night  of  sorrow  will  have  passed  away  and  the  won¬ 
drous  beauty  of  the  law  of  God  will  be  revealed  and  understood.  No 
revolution  but  revelation.  That  is  my  watchword  now.  In  giving  you  this 
statement,  I  realize  that  I  am  using  time  which  might  well  be  given  to 
the  work  of  establishing  my  personal  identity,  but  this  also  is  part  of  my 
identity,  I  hope,  as  much  as  the  memory  of  a  particular  collar  button  and 
its  present  location.  Our  friends,  the  critics,  are  amused  that  we  busy 
ourselves  in  recalling  Welsh  Rarebits,  when  there  are  Bibles  to  be  trans¬ 
lated,  but  we  dare  not  descend  into  literary  efforts  or  they  stone  us  be¬ 
cause  we  cannot  remember  the  wart  on  grandfather’s  finger. 

(Good.) 

What  a  contradictory  jury  we  try  our  case  before,  and  what  an  incon¬ 
sistent  judge  passes  sentence  on  us,  because  we  dare  show  our  faces  at 
a  place,  in  fact,  the  only  place  where  we  can  get  some  inkling  of  the 
truth.  No  respectable  people  believe  in  spirits,  they  tell  you,  and  when 
an  eminently  respectable  and  respected  man  dares  to  show  an  interest,  they 
at  once  do  their  best  to  make  him  the  reverse  of  respectable.  [Pause  after 
word  “  him.”]  1  could  not  think  of  the  word  although  I  once  fathered  a 
dictionary. 

In  the  last  sentence  he  was  referring  to  the  word  “  reverse.” 
The  passage  is  a  good  summary  of  many  a  remark  he  made  in  con¬ 
versation  with  me.  He  took  exactly  that  attitude  toward  the  pub¬ 
lic  as  a  jury  in  the  phenomena,  and  knew  exactly  what  kind  of  evi¬ 
dence  was  necessary  and  what  absurd  things  the  public  wants  for  its 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK  289 

satisfaction  and  delectation.  His  relation  to  a  dictionary  is  too 
well  known  to  make  a  point  of  it,  although  the  knowledge  of  the 
man  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth  is  so  small  that  we  may  well  believe  that 
she  does  not  know  the  fact  well  enough  to  apply  it  so  aptly.  But 
casual  knowledge  may  have  been  forgotten. 

After  further  general  observations  he  undertook  to  give  some 
specific  things  in  personal  identity  which  could  not  easily  be  ques¬ 
tioned  in  their  evidential  nature.  He  first  mentioned  the  Orange 
Mountains,  and  then  described  in  some  detail  a  wooden  building 
with  Corinthian  columns  in  a  small  town  in  view  of  the  moun¬ 
tains  and  with  maple  trees  on  the  street.  It  was  said  to  be  a 
church  without  a  steeple,  but  with  a  square  bell  tower. 

He  lived  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  in  a  town  near  the  Orange 
Mountains  in  New  Jersey,  but  the  church  he  attended  there  had  no 
resemblance  to  the  one  mentioned,  and  no  one  seems  to  know  of 
the  building  so  minutely  described.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing 
about  his  home  near  the  mountains  named.  Nearly  all  his  business 
life  was  spent  in  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

On  the  next  day,  January  15th,  after  general  communications 
of  no  evidential  value,  he  referred  to  “  pictures  ”  and  “  physical 
experiments  ”  he  had  made.  But  the  confusion  was  considerable 
for  some  time,  as  I  would  not  help  in  the  message,  tho  surmising 
what  he  was  trying  to  do.  He  got  away  from  the  subject,  and  as 
the  incident  had  never  been  made  public,  I  resolved  to  have  him 
stick  to  the  subject  and  I  began  the  matter  by  recalling  him  to  it. 

(Now,  were  you  referring  to  a  picture  that  you  got  in  one  of  your  ex¬ 
periments?)  Yes.  (Now,  who  took  that  picture  or  made  it  for  you?) 

I  have  been  trying  to  write  that,  for  I  knew  it  would  be  good  evidence. 

(Yes,  stick  to  it.) 

It  was  quite  a  curio.  My  mother  was  supposed  to  come  and  I  could 
not  see  how  it  was  done. 

(I  understand.  That  was  the  picture  I  had  in  mind.  Now  where  and 
who  was  it  that  made  it  for  you?) 

I  want  to  tell  that  also ;  for,  while  I  was  not  sure  of  the  method,  I  had 
doubts  and  suspicions,  but  there  was  the  result  before  my  eyes. 

(Yes  I  remember.) 

You  know  all  about  that  and  I  have  more  to  say  about  it  now. 

(Yes,  go  ahead.) 

Two  who  had  the  work  in  their  home  and  the  way  it  was  produced 


290  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

seemed  most  open  and  above  reproach.  And  yet,  if  it  were  done  as  sup¬ 
posed,  the  world  ought  to  stand  still  at  the  stupendous  marvel.  I  left  the 
answer  to  time,  for  I  could  not  answer  it  myself.  I  was  not  a  juggler  nor 
sleight  of  hand  artist.  One  thing  I  always  said  was  that  it  was  light 
bright. 

(Yes,  you  mean  that  it  was  bright  when  the  picture  was  taken?) 
Yes.  (And  two  persons  had  to  do  with  the  making?) 

Yes  and  they  had  their  own  conditions  and  time  and  home.  I  went  to 
them,  but  it  was  after  I  was  known  to  be  interested  in  these  matters. 

(Yes,  and  can  you  tell  where  it  was  you  went  to  them?) 

B  .  .  .  On  the  train.  I  first  went  away  from  home. 

(In  what  direction?)  West.  (Yes,  and  I  was  seeking  to  have  it  on 
paper  for  evidence.) 

Yes,  of  course,  and  I  saw  some  slight  changes  in  the  picture  to  any¬ 
thing  I  had  seen  before  as  a  picture  of  my  mother.  Such  changes,  however, 
could  have  easily  been  made  by  an  artist.  It  was  more  than  a  photograph. 

(Yes.)  I  intended  to  say  that  before.  (I  understand.) 

But  it  was  not  a  bad  piece  of  art  nor  superior,  but  still  not  execrable. 

(I  understand.  What  was  the  reputation  of  the  artists  in  the  matter?) 

As  varied  as  the  clientele.  Some  cried.  Impostors,  some  cried.  Most 
gifted  of  the  world’s  psychics.  C  .  .  .  Ch  .  .  .  Chicago. 

(Good,  that  is  the  place.) 

Yes,  that  is  where  I  went.  L  .  .  .  L  .  .  .  M  .  .  .  Bangs. 

(That  is  good.) 

Sisters.  They  talk  as  devotedly  to  the  subject  as  you  or  I,  but  I  have  an 
idea  it  is  trade  talk,  but  do  not  yet  know  the  methods  used.  It  would  be 
easy  if  collusion  were  discovered. 

Dr.  Funk  visited  the  Bangs  sisters  to  try  their  work  at  what  was 
called  spirit  paintings.  The  conjurer  can  duplicate  such  phenom¬ 
ena  with  considerable  ease.  But  Dr.  Funk  had  an  old  photograph 
of  his  mother  and  did  not  show  it  or  take  it  out  of  his  pocket.  He 
got  a  picture  of  her  which  he  regarded  as  a  good  likeness  and  his 
son  told  me  that  he  saw  the  likeness  of  his  grandmother  in  it.  I 
m3^self  saw  the  painting,  but  not  the  original.  Dr.  Funk  had  not 
made  up  his  mind  about  its  character.  That  he  told  me  in  my  con¬ 
versation  with  him  when  I  saw  it  at  his  home  in  Brooklyn.  He  was 
puzzled  to  account  for  it  under  the  conditions,  as  that  picture  was 
so  rare.  The  L  and  M  are  the  initials  of  the  Bangs  sisters’ 
Christian  names. 

Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  of  the  existence  of  the  Bangs  sisters  and 
the  nature  of  their  work.  But  that  was  all,  in  so  far  as  the  present 
incident  is  concerned.  The  subliminal  might  have  gues.sed  the 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


291 


place  after  the  allusion  was  made  to  the  fact  that  “  two  ”  were  con¬ 
cerned  in  the  picture  and  after  my  admission  that  it  was  “  West,” 
Chicago  and  the  Bangs  sisters  would  be  a  natural  guess  after  that, 
for  any  one  who  knew  them  and  their  work.  But  she  did  not  know 
the  other  facts.  The  intimate  personal  traits  and  opinions  of  Dr. 
Funk  on  this  incident  were  not  known  to  her  and  were  known  to 
very  few  even  of  his  acquaintances.  His  attitude  toward  the  in¬ 
cident  is  described  with  perfect  correctness  and  accuracy.  The  de¬ 
scription  of  the  two  sisters  as  having  a  reputation  as  varied  as  their 
clientele  is  literally  correct  and  well  known  to  Dr.  Funk,  and  could 
be  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  but  the  terms  of  the  description  are 
not  like  Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  are  like  Dr.  Funk. 

Dr.  Funk  did  not  appear  again  until  June  14th,  1916.  I  was 
busy  with  other  work  in  the  meantime.  When  he  did  appear  he 
first  gave  his  name  and  began  with  a  reference  to  the  picture  which 
I  have  mentioned  in  detail,  and  spoke  of  the  cost  of  such  work  in 
rather  humorous  terms.  Then  he  immediately  took  up  his  posthum¬ 
ous  letter  and  warned  me  that  it  would  take  a  little  time  to  deliver 
its  contents.  He  again  referred  to  simplified  spelling,  but  got  no 
further  at  that  sitting. 

At  the  next  sitting,  June  15th,  he  began  by  explaining  the  diffi¬ 
culties  in  communicating  and,  though  at  first  it  contained  no  ele¬ 
ment  of  personal  identity,  it  soon  revealed  a  very  subtle  character¬ 
istic  imbedded  in  ideas  beyond  the  knowledge  of  the  psychic.  He 
began  with  his  Christian  name  and  then  came  the  following. 

I  am  here  again  and  it  does  not  seem  at  all  strange.  In  fact  it  is  so 
natural  that  it  is  with  some  difficulty  I  realize  that  I  am  making  a  bridge 
of  myself. 

You  know  how  easily  one  drops  into  conversation  with  interested  friends 
and  when  a  specific  matter  is  questioned  the  mind  becomes  unruly  and 
questions  its  own  knowledge,  even  when  perfectly  sure  ten  minutes  before 
that  the  knowledge  was  exact  and  correct.  I  think  that  is  exactly  what 
happens  here  or  anywhere  when  we  try  to  express  a  particular  idea.  It 
seems  more  like  that  to  me  than  like  trying  to  master  or  conquer  an¬ 
other  outside  element  which  you  people  have  named  the  subliminal  of 
the  medium.  I  think  we  need  not  go  outside  our  own  experiences  to 
find  ample  reason  for  the  disturbances  mentally  when  trying  to  recall.  It 
is  very  like  trying  to  recall  what  certain  things  would  be  in  French  or 
German  or  a  language  we  did  not  commonly  use,  a  sort  of  translating 


292  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

process  because  we  are  not  as  dependent  on  language  as  you  are. 

(I  see.) 

Sounds  were  not  always  the  means  of  communication  in  earlier  tribes 
of  men,  but  developed  powers  given  new  expressions,  and  signs  and 
symbols  were  left  behind,  and  with  some  difficulty  new  methods  of  speech 
were  adopted  and  the  mongrel  method  of  signs  and  sounds,  still  used  by 
the  race,  is  a  left  over  condition.  So  much  that  comes  to  us  is  a  mongrel 
expression  of  a  past  form  of  intercourse,  and  much  that  we  commonly  use 
drops  into  the  effort  and  leaves  hiatuses  which  seem  like  sorry  efforts  at 
communication. 

I  have  wanted  to  pass  this  theory  of  mine  down  to  you  for  some  time, 
but  have  had  no  chance.  It  is  not  in  the  least  like  telepathy,  this  method 
of  communication  between  us  here,  but  has  as  much  to  do  with  vision  as 
sound. 

The  subtle  point  of  personal  identity  in  this  is  the  reflection  of 
Dr.  Funk’s  study  of  the  principles  of  language,  when  living,  in 
order  to  work  out  a  scientific  basis  for  simplifying  our  spelling 
evidence  of  which  I  often  remarked  in  his  office.  On  this  question 
the  message  is  not  perfectly  clear,  except  in  reference  to  certain 
points.  But  it  is  evident  that  he  is  trying  to  compare  our  own 
normal  methods  of  intercourse  and  those  which  prevail  on  the  other 
side  and  affect  the  process  and  the  contents  of  the  communica¬ 
tions  received  by  us.  The  statement  that  with  them  vision  has  as 
much  to  do  with  the  process  as  sound  is  only  a  recognition  of  the 
pictographic  process  and  includes  the  similar  characteristic  in  sound. 
That  is,  clairvoyance  is  as  much  a  factor  in  communication  as 
clairaudience,  and  the  connection  between  their  methods  of  trans¬ 
mitting  to  us  and  our  own  intercommunication  by  the  symbolism  of 
language  which  is  sound  only  and  involves  physical  phenomena,  is 
that  the  symbols  are  quite  different.  We  should  say  that  it  was  like 
telepathy  in  that  respect.  Dr.  Funk  denies  this,  and  it  is  at  this 
point  that  he  indicates  a  point  of  personal  identity,  as  he  knew 
nothing  about  the  pictographic  process  and  thought  telepathy  a 
transmission  without  the  use  of  symbols  or  hallucinatory  pictures. 

There  is  no  trace  to  me  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth’s  knowledge  in  the 
passage,  though  the  terminology  is  at  least  partly  hers.  The  ex¬ 
pression  “  left  over  ”  is  hers  for  certain  mental  phenomena,  notice¬ 
able  in  her  own  conscious  experience,  but  the  ideas  are  more  subtle 
than  anything  she  knows  about  language  and  the  processes  of 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


293 


human  intercommunication.  The  whole  subject  reflects  the  deeper 
aspects  of  Dr.  Funk’s  mind  on  the  question  of  language.  But  he 
went  on  a  little  later  and  stated  that  there  was  a  telepathic  com¬ 
munication  between  them  and  us  and  that  it  was  the  result  of 
“  some  other  contact.”  I  saw  that  he  had  opened  a  question  as 
to  the  nature  of  telepathy  and  asked  him  if  he  meant  to  say  that 
telepathy  between  spirits  and  the  living  required  the  aid  of  another 
party,  and  his  reply  was  the  query  to  know  if  I  was  “  referring  to 
the  message  bearer  theory  now.”  On  my  assent,  his  reply  was  a 
most  interesting  one,  though  we  cannot  verify  it.  Of  the  trans¬ 
mission  he  says : 

“  That  is  often  purposely  done,  but  conversations,  spirit  contact  and 
consequent  knowledge  of  situations  and  emotions,  often  fall  into  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  a  sensitive  quite  irrespective  of  definite  purpose,  but  such 
knowledge  is  being  expressed  somewhere  at  the  time,  else  it  could  not  over¬ 
flow.” 

Here  we  have  an  intermediary  involved  in  the  telepathic  trans¬ 
mission  of  thoughts  of  the  dead  to  us  and  with  the  fact  also  the 
involuntary  transmission  of  thoughts  going  on  elsewhere  at  the 
time,  a  phenomena  which  I  have  often  remarked  in  the  work  of 
the  psychic.  While  it  does  not  directly  assert  that  the  same  process 
is  connected  with  telepathy  between  the  living,  it  is  more  or  less  im¬ 
plied  by  the  conception  outlined  and  that  intermediary  would  most 
likely  be  a  discarnate  spirit,  and  both  the  sporadic  character  of  the 
phenomena  in  the  apparent  purposelessness  of  much  of  it  would 
favor  the  view. 

The  next  day,  the  i6th,  he  recurred  again  to  his  method  of  in¬ 
vestigating  and  referred  to  dark  seances  which  he  had  often  had, 
though  not  constantly,  the  facts  being  wholly  unknown  to  Mrs. 
Chenoweth.  He  remarked :  ”  I  have  heard  it  said  that  I  was 

easily  fooled,  an  old  idiot  who  could  be  fooled  with  his  eyes  shut, 
but  I  don’t  need  to  refute  that  statement  here :  for  you  know  the 
best  detective  work  is  done  when  one  is  supposed  to  be  unwary.” 

This  was  quite  characteristic  of  the  man  and  was  a  secret  with 
himself  and  a  few  friends.  Finding  that  he  was  getting  confused 
in  what  he  was  saying,  he  changed  the  subject  to  the  Bible  and  said 
he  was  a  believer  in  it,  which  was  true,  and  he  thought,  as  he  saA  s 


^94  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

here  in  the  message,  that  “  some  light  might  be  given  to  certain 
passages  and  statements  by  the  study  of  the  occult.”  1  saw  my 
chance  and  took  up  the  subject. 

(What  passages,  for  instance?) 

1  thought  the  matter  of  some  of  the  old  Testament  stories  might  well 
be  explained  by  the  understanding  of  the  laws  governing  the  modern 
manifestations. 

(What  in  the  Old  Testament,  for  instance?) 

Just  a  minute.  I  wanted  to  reconcile  old  and  new  mythological  Biblical 
statements.  Some  of  this  you  may  know  about,  for  it  was  a  matter  of 
interest  to  me,  often  expressed  to  my  psychic  research  friends.  The  woman 
of  Endor  and  Moses  and  the  Commandments.  Red  Sea  episode  and  Samuel. 

The  misinterpretation  of  these  with  several  others  brought  darkness 
rather  than  light,  and  I  believe  now  as  I  did  before  I  came  here,  that  the 
light  on  the  ancient  Scripture  will  come  through  modern  interpretation, 
through  the  knowledge  obtained  through  psychic  research  work. 

While  we  never  discussed  this  subject  specifically,  he  threw  out 
remarks  about  the  relation  of  psychic  research  to  religion  that  prove 
this  message  to  be  very  characteristic,  as  characteristic  as  it  is  cor¬ 
rect  about  the  problem.  But  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  whatever  she  be¬ 
lieves,  did  not  know  Dr.  Funk’s  views  on  the  matter. 

He  then  went  on  to  state  the  change  of  view  which  he  made  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  and  added  that,  “  when  we  lift 
ourselves  to  the  divine  state,  our  communicators  will  be  of  that 
type,  but  while  we  are  less  than  that,  we  receive  visitors  of  our  own 
ilk.”  I  expressed  my  assent  and  we  continued:  “We  have  had 
some  straight  talks  before  I  came  here,  and  we  were  of  the  same 
mind  on  these  things,  and  the  conception  of  making  our  messages 
other  than  from  people  like  ourselves  never  came  to  us,  plain 
people  returning  in  plain  fashion.” 

This  passage  is  a  clear  reference  to  what  I  knew  to  be  character¬ 
istic  of  Dr.  Funk  when  he  once  remarked  to  me  in  conversation  that 
the  dead  were  “  not  angels  but  just  folks.”  He  had  no  patience 
with  the  ordinary  conceptions  of  the  dead,  and  knew  nothing  about 
the  processes  necessary  to  get  the  more  spiritual  type  of  message. 
I  tried  at  this  point,  without  hinting  what  I  wanted  to  see,  if  I 
could  get  him  to  refer  to  a  view  which  he  once  mentioned  to  me 
as  an  alternative  to  spirits ;  namely,  the  “  demons  ’  of  the  New 
Testament,  but  he  did  not  catch  my  point.  He  referred,  however. 


DH.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


295 

to  a  perplexity  which  had  troubled  him  at  times;  namely  the 
“  cosmic  reservoir  theory  ”  and  also  “  dual  consciousness,”  which 
might  be  convertible  with  his  “  demon  theory,”  and  remarked  that 
“  we  knocked  down  so  many  straw  men  before  we  built  up  our 
final  form  ”  of  theory. 

This  too  was  the  substance  of  many  a  conversation  and  repre¬ 
sents  his  attitude  and  conception  of  the  problem  clearly  enough. 
He  did  not  appear  again  until  June  19th  and  then  began  with  the 
remark  that  he  had  known  Whirlwind  before  he  died.  Whirlwind 
is  one  of  the  controls  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  otherwise  spoken  of  as 
Jennie  P.  His  statement  was  true  as  he  had  seen  records  of  her 
work  and  was  interested  in  her  personality,  a  fact  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
did  not  know.  He  then  went  on  to  his  own  work  again. 

I  knew  the  tricksters  quite  as  well  as  you,  or  better,  for  I  had  the  temerity 
to  risk  being  duped,  and  one  by  one  I  found  them  out  and  piled  up  my 
evidence  for  and  against.  I  thought  it  best  to  know  for  myself  and  not 
to  take  the  word  of  some  one  else. 

(I  understand.) 

I  think  it  time  that  some  of  these  people  whom  we  both  knew  should 
take  some  responsibility  toward  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  work. 

(Could  you  not  from  your  side  influence  one  of  them  to  help?  You 
know  whom  I  mean.) 

Yes  I  think  so,  for  there  is  more  done  from  this  side  than  is  supposed. 
You  refer  to  our  friend  in  New  York  who  has  been  approached  be¬ 
fore,  through  some  friends  of  his,  but  who  seems  slow  to  see  the  impor¬ 
tance  of  the  endowment.  I  think  endowment  ought  to  be  understood  as 
meaning  equipment  to  unearth  the  truth  about  this  subject  either  for  or 
against.  Some  very  canny  people  would  be  glad  to  have  a  devil  un¬ 
masked,  but  never  care  about  putting  aside  the  veil  from  the  face  of 
God’s  angels. 

(Who  tried  to  approach  that  man?) 

Let  me  think.  It  was  done,  I  think,  before  I  came  here. 

(Yes  it  was.) 

I  mean  before  I  died,  and  I  thought  at  one  time  we  might  get  some¬ 
thing  as  well  as  the  various  towns  and  groups  that  did,  and  when  I  came 
here  he  was  one  of  my  first  attacking  points.  Andrew  Carnegie. 

(Yes,  that  is  correct.) 

Peace  seems  to  have  needed  ammunition,  but  he  does  not  need  to  with¬ 
draw  from  that  in  order  to  give  us  a  due  interest.  Angle  worms  get  quite 
as  much  attention  as  angels. 

Dr.  Funk  had  investigated  “  tricksters  ”  more  than  I  had  done. 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know  this  fact,  and  he  had  studied  the 


296  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

results  as  stated.  The  allusion  to  endowment,  it  will  be  seen,  was 
quite  spontaneous  and  I  at  once  directed  my  tactics  to  see  what  he 
would  say  on  that  point.  The  result  justified  my  expectations. 
Dr.  Funk  himself  is  exactly  represented  in  views  taken  here,  as 
shown  in  many  a  conversation  with  me,  and  he  himself  had  tried 
tliree  times  to  get  Mr.  Carnegie  to  help  us,  but  without  success.  He 
was  close  enough  to  Mr.  Carnegie  in  the  matter  of  simplified  spell- 
ing  to  venture  on  this,  but  was  at  last  denied  the  matter  in  a  rather 
plain  way.  The  remark  about  angle  worms  is  an  interesting 
reminiscence  of  the  work  of  Darwin  as  compared  with  the  investi¬ 
gation  of  the  human  soul.  It  was  exactly  Dr.  Funk’s  idea  of  the 
matter,  though  he  never  used  that  particular  analogy  to  me. 

Following  this  message  immediately,  he  took  up  a  subject  of 
his  own  experience  whose  pertinence  in  this  connection  it  would 
require  much  time  to  explain,  but  its  evidential  import  is  easy.  He 
asked : 

Do  you  recall  Brooklyn  and  work  done  there  and  some  queer  things  that 
happened  which  were  in  the  nature  of  evidence? 

(Yes,  tell  all  about  it.) 

Circles  where  some  manifestations  of  a  physical  nature  purported  to  be 
given  and  where  ghosts,  apparitions,  sounds,  lights  came. 

This  is  a  clear  reference  to  some  dark  seances  in  Brooklyn  where 
just  such  occurrences  took  place  and  he  always  reserved  his  opin¬ 
ion  about  them,  as  intimated  in  the  use  of  the  term  “  purported,” 
and  owing  to  the  incident  of  the  ”  Widow’s  Mite  ”  which  occurred 
there,  he  took  me  once  to  the  performance,  at  which  nothing  of 
interest  occurred,  except  that  I  was  convinced  that  the  medium,  a 
private  person,  was  honest,  though  doing  things  which  the  con¬ 
jurer  would  call  fraud,  but  which  were  evidently  somnambulic 
phenomena  on  the  borderland  of  the  genuine.  Mrs.  Chenoweth 
could  know  none  of  these  things.  The  sequel  is  interesting  as 
proving  that  I  have  rightly  interpreted  the  incident. 

Dr.  Funk  did  not  appear  till  June  28th,  but  on  June  27th  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  purported  to  communicate.  The  importance  of  this 
lies  in  the  fact  that  he  was  for  a  long  time  the  pastor  of  Dr.  Funk  in 
Brooklyn  and  was  connected,  as  a  communicator,  with  the  very 
experiments  mentioned  in  the  last  quotation  from  Dr.  Funk.  ]\Ir. 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


297 

Beecher  began  and  communicated  about  the  difference  between  his 
work  and  ours,  but  recognizing  the  far  reaching  import  of  the 
'scientific  side  of  it,  and  half  jocosely  treating  of  emphasizing  the 
difference.  I  did  not  know  who  was  communicating  and  I  inter¬ 
rupted  the  generality  of  the  message  to  ascertain  his  identity.  It 
resulted  in  the  following  passage,  with  an  item  of  unusual  interest 
in  the  personal  identity  of  both  men. 

(May  I  ask  who  is  communicating?) 

Your  friend,  1.  F.,  Isaac  Funk,  is  my  friend  and  he  laughed  at  some 
things  I  asked  about  your  efforts  and  his,  and  he  was  to  write  to¬ 
day.  He  [was]  always  a  clergyman  wuth  leanings  toward  the  unusual. 
Did  you  know  that  he  could  preach  ? 

(Yes.) 

A  sort  of  emergency  fund.  When  he  could  do  nothing  else,  he  could 
preach,  he  told  me,  but  he  did  too  many  other  things  to  make  his  preach¬ 
ing  the  one  great  power  in  his  life.  I  knew  him  and  love  him. 

I  am  H.  W.  B.  Brooklyn,  Plymouth. 

(Yes,  that’s  right.) 

I  could  no  more  rest  on  a  cloud  of  glory  than  Mark  Twain.  We  have 
to  find  some  way  to  get  back,  if  it  is  only  as  a  supply,  when  the  regular 
pastor  goes  away. 

(I  understand.) 

I  have  quite  as  much  interest  in  my  fellow  travellers  as  Funk  or  you, 
even  if  I  wrote  no  posthumous  letters  to  startle  an  unsuspecting  world. 

(I  understand.  Did  you  ever  communicate  with  Dr.  Funk?) 

Yes,  yes,  and  tried  to  wake  him  up  to  the  importance  of  the  cause  and 
he  knew  I  came  to  him,  too. 

(What  incident?) 

There  you  go.  What  did  I  tell  you  ? 

(Yes.)  [I  laughed  heartily  as  he  was  joking  me  on  my  evidential 
bent.] 

It  is  not  how  you  can  make  your  power  felt,  but  what  kind  of  chips 
did  you  use  to  make  the  tea  kettle  boil.  Well,  if  you  must  pin  me  down 
like  a  school  master  here  it  is. 

I  came  to  him  several  times,  and  on  one  occasion  a  message  proved 
of  value  to  him,  and  I  always  felt  I  would  like  to  tell  him  that  I  did  it 
myself.  He  used  to  wonder  if  I  did  it  or  got  some  one  to  do  it  for  me. 
Money,  there  was  money  in  that  message. 

(Yes,  go  ahead.) 

And  money  that  made  him  take  notice.  The  old  lady,  the  old  lady, 
good  old  widow. 

The  control  was  lost  at  this  point,  but  to  those  familiar  with  the 
facts  the  passage  is  clear.  This  is  the  story  told  in  Dr.  Funk’s 


298  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

book  “  The  Widow’s  Mite.”  In  working  up  the  Standard  Dic¬ 
tionary,  Dr.  Funk  got  one  of  the  ancient  coins,  called  the  “  Widow’s 
Mite,”  once  owned  by  Mr.  Beecher,  to  use  in  an  illustration.  At 
one  of  the  sittings  in  Brooklyn  referred  to,  in  the  passage  quoted 
previous  to  the  message  immediately  above,  Mr.  Beecher  purported 
to  communicate  and  referred  to  this  coin  and  said  it  had  not  been 
returned.  Dr.  Funk  said  that  it  had,  but  Mr.  Beecher  said  that 
it  had  not,  and  told  just  where  it  was.  Dr.  Funk  went  to  his  office 
and  to  the  safe  where  he  knew  it  had  been  kept  at  one  time,  but 
could  not  find  it  in  the  place  to  which  he  had  been  directed  by 
Mr.  Beecher.  He  then  went  to  another  sitting  and  Mr.  Beecher 
again  communicated.  Mr.  Beecher  was  told  that  the  coin  was  not 
where  he,  Mr.  Beecher,  had  said  it  was.  Mr.  Beecher  described  the 
situation  more  minutely.  Dr.  Funk  went  away  and  made  a  second 
and  more  careful  search  and  found  an  envelop  with  two  of  the 
coins  in  it.  But  he  did  not  know  which  one  was  Mr.  Beecher’s  or 
which  one  was  genuine.  He  knew  that  one  of  them  was  counter¬ 
feit.  He  thought  the  red  one  genuine.  He  returned  to  the  sit¬ 
tings  and  told  Mr.  Beecher  what  he  found  and  asked  which  one 
was  genuine,  and  was  told  that  it  was  the  black  one.  Dr.  Funk 
did  not  think  so.  He  went  home  and  sent  both  coins  to  the  Phila¬ 
delphia  Mint  and  asked  which  was  the  genuine  “  Widow’s  Mite.” 
The  reply  was  the  same  as  Mr.  Beecher’s;  namely,  the  black  one. 

The  pointedness  of  the  incident  e.xplains  itself,  and  considering 
that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  had  not  seen  or  read  the  book  in  which  the 
incident  was  made  public,  the  reference  to  it  here  by  the  original 
sender  in  company  with  the  receiver  makes  a  cross  reference  of 
the  incident  as  well  as  an  incident  in  proof  of  the  identity  of  both 
men.  The  only  weakness  in  it  is  its  liability  to  ca.sual  information 
from  gossip  about  Dr.  Funk  and  the  “Widow’s  Mite,”  and  its 
connection  with  Mr.  Beecher.  The  connection,  however,  and  the 
withholding  of  the  communicator’s  name  are  so  much  in  favor  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  phenomenon  here  and  also  the  manner  of  making 
the  reference  to  the  idea  rather  than  to  the  specific  incident  when 
the  subliminal  should  have  reproduced  the  exact  language  of  the 
recorded  incident.  The  relation  to  the  previous  allusion  to  the 
Brooklyn  sittings,  about  which  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know  the 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


299 

facts,  also  is  some  protection  to  the  case  and  in  all  it  has  an  unusual 
and  complicated  interest. 

The  next  day  Dr.  Funk  took  up  the  matter  and  stated  things 
that  had  not  been  recorded  in  his  account  of  the  facts.  He  said 
that  “  the  British  Museum  held  nothing  better.”  This  was  true 
enough  and  no  part  of  the  incident  as  published.  He  then  took  up 
his  experiments  and  mine  in  an  instructive  statement  reflecting  his 
personal  identity  in  a  way  not  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  He 
started  with  a  reference  to  the  contents  of  his  posthumous  letter. 

I  tried  to  make  simple  assertions,  because  we,  you  and  I,  had  talked  about 
the  difficulties  of  getting  complex  statements  through. 

(Yes  we  did.) 

And  I  knew  that  the  vultures  would  be  after  my  bones.  I  had  been 
falsely  identified  with  so  many  associations  when  I  had  only  shown  the 
interest  of  the  passer  by. 

(I  understand.) 

You  knew  that  and  you  kept  away.  We  had  to  make  a  special  ar¬ 
rangement  for  you,  either  at  your  house  or  another,  for  the  public  demon¬ 
stration  did  not  appeal  to  you. 

(Correct.) 

That  will  not  help  you  much,  though,  when  you  die.  They  will  lie  just 
as  glibly  then  as  they  do  now. 

I  do  not  know  about  the  first  statement  of  this  message,  as  it 
pertains  to  his  posthumous  letter  which  has  not  yet  been  opened. 
But  the  rest  of  the  passage  is  e.xactly  correct  and  not  known  to 
!Mrs.  Chenoweth,  though  she  might  have  inferred  by  lack  of  in¬ 
terest  in  public  demonstrations.  But  she  did  not  know  that  Dr. 
Funk  was  aware  of  the  fact,  and  especially  did  not  know  that  he 
was  exactly  correct  in  stating  that  the  only  way  he  could  get 
me  interested  was  to  make  an  appointment  at  my  own  house  or 
some  private  house  other  than  my  own.  The  mental  tone  of  it 
also  is  his,  especially  his  consciousness  of  how  he  was  regarded 
and  his  indifference  to  it.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know  the  man 
well  enough  to  reproduce  him  in  this  manner. 

Immediately  he  followed  this  message  by  one  in  reference  to  a 
psychic  whom  he  had  often  met  and  with  whom  he  had  experi¬ 
mented,  identifying  her  by  reference  to  Judge  Dailey  by  name 
with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted  and  concerning  which  fact  Mrs. 


300  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Chenoweth  knew  nothing,  though  she  knew  well  enough  about 
Judge  Dailey  and  this  medium.  He  referred  to  this  medium  in  un¬ 
mistakably  clear  terms,  and  then  referred  to  another  one  in  correct 
terms,  comparing  the  two  persons  correctly  and  recognizing  that 
the  latter  had  genuine  powers.  This  was  recognized  by  Dr.  Hodg¬ 
son  when  living.  While  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  about  both  psychics, 
she  did  not  know  that  Dr.  Funk  knew  them  so  intimately. 

At  the  next  sitting,  June  29th,  he  alluded  to  Mr.  Carnegie  briefly 
again,  and  then  passed  to  communications  about  things  on  that 
side.  There  was  nothing  in  them  that  is  verifiable,  except  some 
statements  about  religion  which  were  characteristic  of  him  and  not 
in  any  way  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth.  Though  the  passages  are 
interesting  they  are  too  long  to  quote  and  have  no  value  in  proving 
anything  when  taken  alone.  In  the  course  of  them,  however,  he 
turned  aside  to  mention  a  matter  which  required  him  to  speak  of 
his  son  which  he  did,  the  fact  that  he  had  a  living  son  not  being 
known  to  the  psychic.  But  he  first  gave  the  name  Benjamin  which 
was  the  name  of  his  brother  who  had  died  a  short  time  before  this 
and  was  not  known  in  any  way  to  the  public.  The  circumstance 
had  evidential  character  of  considerable  importance  and  later  he 
corrected  the  mistake  here  made  of  confusing  him  for  a  moment 
with  his  son. 

On  June  30th  he  recurred  again  to  Whirlwind  in  a  correct  way  and 
evidentially,  but  for  the  previous  reference  to  her,  and  then  made 
the  remark,  while  explaining  the  confusion  about  his  brother  and 
son,  that  spirits  communicated  automatically  while  they  might  be 
thinking  on  another  matter.  Though  we  cannot  prove  this  individ¬ 
ual  statement,  there  is  evidence  that  the  statement  is  probably  cor¬ 
rect.  At  least  the  facts  make  it  a  legitimate  hypothesis  to  be  tested 
and  proved  in  the  future.  It  certainly  explained  why  he  mentioned 
his  deceased  brother  Benjamin  when  he  should  have  mentioned  his 
living  son,  who  was  the  only  person  concerned  with  the  matter  of 
his  message  at  the  time,  and  who  was  definitely  indicated  in  the 
correction.  He  continued  his  communications  on  the  process  of 
transmitting  messages  and  then  turned  to  a  matter  still  to  be  con¬ 
sidered.  At  the  sitting  of  July  ist  which  followed  he  referred  first 
to  an  attack  in  the  “  Brooklyn  Eagle  ”  upon  him  for  his  adven- 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


301 


tures  in  this  subject.  This  paper  had  attacked  him  along  with 
others,  and  the  fact  was  not  known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  as  it 
occurred  before  the  new  American  Society  was  organized,  and 
was  not  known  specially  outside  the  city  in  which  he  lived.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  sitting  he  referred  to  some  old  letters  he  had  and 
specifying  one  as  from  Abraham  Lincoln.  Inquiry  showed  that 
he  had  corresponded  with  many  public  men  about  that  time,  but  no 
letter  from  Mr.  Lincoln  was  found. 

On  July  5th,  after  an  interval  occupied  with  another  person, 
he  returned  to  the  work  and  referred  to  his  library,  and  when  I 
remarked  that  I  knew  nothing  of  it,  he  went  on  as  follows ; 

You  know  nothing  of  my  home? 

(No,  nothing  save  that  I  was  in  it  once.) 

I  thought  you  had  been  there,  but  it  was  when  something  was  going  on. 

(Yes,  and  you  showed  me  that  picture  .  .  .)  [Writing  began  before  I 
had  finished  my  statement.] 

Yes  mother’s  and  there  were  some  other  things  that  went  with  it, 
slates,  messages  you  know. 

(Yes  I  do.) 

And  some  were  very  apparent  tricks  and  some  were  not  so  apparent, 
but  possible  tricks. 

(Yes  I  understand.) 

And  I  flatter  myself  that  the  perpetrators  never  knew  my  real  opinions, 
for  I  wanted  the  result  whatever  it  might  be. 

It  was  his  mother’s  picture  that  he  showed  me  on  this  occasion. 
I  do  not  recall  that  he  showed  me  any  slates  at  that  time,  but  he 
did  show  me  slates  and  tricks  he  had  witnessed  on  another  occasion. 
His  attitude  on  the  phenomena  is  correctly  indicated.  The  trick¬ 
sters  never  found  out  what  he  thought  about  them.  He  was  too 
sly  to  give  himself  away.  The  remainder  of  the  sitting  was  taken 
up  with  another  matter. 

At  the  next  sitting  little  came  that  I  can  easily  make  clear  until 
the  end.  Then  the  following  was  given. 

I  wonder  if  you  recall  anything  about  a  hotel  interview  in  New  York. 

(With  whom,?)  You.  (Yes,  go  ahead.) 

You  and  a  medium,  meeting  with  spirits. 

(Yes,  tell  me  all  about  that.) 

I  have  been  more  eager  to  recall  it,  for  there  were  several  things  in¬ 
volved  that  only  you  and  I  knew. 


302  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

(Yes,  stick  to  it.) 

Sometime  ago  it  was,  and  it  proved  of  greater  value  than  we  knew  at 
the  time. 

(Do  you  remember  who  the  important  communicator  was?) 

Yes,  that  I  will  tell. 

The  psychic  suddenly  came  out  of  the  trance  before  the  message 
was  completed.  We  had  a  sitting  at  a  hotel  in  New  York  at 
which  a  mutual  friend  was  present  with  Dr.  Funk  and  myself. 
The  psychic  was  a  private  person  of  good  standing.  The  com¬ 
municator  was  Thompson  Jay  Hudson  and  he  answered  a  question 
of  Dr.  Funk’s  involving  a  private  matter  that  passed  between  the 
two  men  and  that  none  of  us  but  Dr.  Funk  knew.  To  have  gotten 
the  name  of  Hudson  at  this  juncture  would  have  been  a  most  ex¬ 
cellent  piece  of  evidence.  But  he  failed  at  this  time  and  later  al¬ 
luding  to  the  matter  again  referred  to  a  “  man  across  the  water.” 
The  other  person  present  on  the  occasion  was  a  man  from  England. 
Later  he  got  the  name  Thompson  through  and  thus  cleared  up  his 
original  intention  and  made  the  evidence  excellent. 

But  in  the  same  sitting  he  alluded  to  another  incident  of  some  in¬ 
terest  which  had  been  a  very  funny  one.  Professor  Shaler  had 
tried  to  communicate  with  me  and  got  into  serious  trouble  in  the 
effort.  His  getting  free  was  a  very  funny  incident.  Mrs.  Cheno- 
weth  knew  nothing  about  it.  Dr.  Funk  was  told  it  by  me,  because 
it  was  an  incident  he  would  enjoy  and  because  it  threw  light  on  the 
difficulties  of  communicating.  He  here  referred  to  him  and  the 
incident.  It  was  better  evidence  of  supernormal  knowledge  than 
it  was  of  personal  identity,  though  it  had  some  features,  as  re¬ 
marked,  of  this. 

He  did  not  appear  again  until  July  nth  and  even  then  only 
an  incident  or  two  has  special  pertinence.  He  was  referred  to  by 
the  control  as  interested  in  “  the  Enigma  of  Existence  ”  find  I  was 
asked  at  once  if  I  saw  “  the  semblance  of  the  title  ”  and  when  I 
assented,  the  statement  came :  “  I  thought  you  did.  The  Sphinx 
has  spoken.”  He  was  then  said  to  have  known  the  Bible  “  from 
beginning  to  end.”  This  last  was  perfectly  true  and  not  known  by 
the  psychic.  The  reference  to  the  Sphinx  and  to  the  “  Enigma  of 
Existence  ”  and  the  semblance  of  the  title  was  evidently  a  re- 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK  303 

minder  of  the  title  to  his  book  called  “  The  Psychic  Riddle,”  which 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  did  not  know. 

Dr.  Funk  did  not  appear  again  until  February  9th,  1917,  when 
he  appeared  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher  again.  I  had  been  occu¬ 
pied  in  the  meantime  with  another  matter.  Mr.  Beecher  did  not 
reveal  his  identity,  and  my  question  brought  Dr.  Funk  to  the  fore. 
He  indicated  who  was  with  him,  but  only  after  he  had  made  the 
following  communication. 

I  want  to  speak  of  a  bronze  piece. 

(Describe  it.) 

[A  circle  was  drawn.]  Medallion.  Did  I  try  to  tell  you  something  of 
a  medal  when  I  was  here  before?  It  is  a  medallion  made  of  bronze  with 
repousse  figures.  Much  interest  to  me.  I  thought  I  wrote  about  it  before. 

(I  do  not  recall  it.  Did  it  have  a  special  name?) 

What  did  you  do  to  my  old  friend  Henry  Ward?  [I  had  received  the 
previous  communication  from  Mr.  Beecher  with  much  indifference,  as  he 
did  not  identify  himself  and  I  was  anxious  to  have  something  else.] 

(Do  you  know?) 

Gave  him  a  chilling  greeting.  He  is  smiling  here  and  says  he  thinks 
you  would  have  no  use  for  the  Angel  Gabriel,  if  you  had  an  engagement 
with  Jack  Jones  to  give  evidence. 

To  return  to  H.  W.  B.  [Beecher.]  This  was  an  occasion  earlier  than 
this  one  to-day  and  he  also  tried  to  make  connections  at  another  place. 
You  know  Lee,  not  here,  but  another  place,  another  light. 

(I  don’t  know  anything  about  it.) 

Do  not  be  too  hasty  for  this  is  sometime  ago,  and  I  was  there  too. 

I  did  not  recognize  what  was  meant  by  the  allusion  to  the  “  bronze 
medal,”  and  inquiry  showed  that  he  had  no  such  thing  so  far  as 
the  son  knew.  But  the  sequel  showed  that  he  meant  the  “  Widow’s 
Mite  ”  which  was  of  bronze,  and  the  mental  picture  by  which  the 
message  was  transmitted  involved  a  mistake  by  the  control  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  picture,  taking  the  picture  of  this  small  coin 
as  that  of  a  “  bronze  medal.” 

The  reference  to  Mrs.  Lee  was  very  striking,  as  the  sequel  proved 
it  to  be.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about  her.  I  had  never 
mentioned  the  lady  or  her  work  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  and  I  did  not 
know  what  the  reference  here  meant.  I  wrote  to  her  at  once  to 
know  if  she  had  any  photograph  of  either  Mr.  Beecher  or  Dr. 
Funk  among  those  she  had  taken.  She  replied  that  she  had  one 
of  Mr.  Beecher  taken  sometime  previously,  but  none  of  Dr.  Funk, 


304  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

so  far  as  she  knew.  She  sent  me  the  picture  and  no  one  what¬ 
ever  would  question  the  identity  of  the  man  in  it.  It  is  an  excellent 
photograph  of  him.  It  claims  to  be  a  spirit  photograph  and  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  could  not  know  about  the  fact.  I  was  familiar  with 
Mrs.  Lee’s  work,  and  published  some  of  it  in  the  “  Proceedings,”  of 
which  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing,  but  did  not  myself  know 
about  this  photograph  of  Mr.  Beecher. 

Dr.  Funk  did  not  appear  again  until  February  12th,  1917.  He 
began  characteristically  with  a  quotation  from  ist  Thessalonians, 
but  without  definite  meaning  that  can  now  be  determined.  He  then 
went  on  to  say  that  he  thought  the  sacred  books  of  the  East  might 
be  studied  with  advantage  to  psychic  research.  But  he  accom¬ 
panied  the  statement  with  the  remark  that  “  precepts  ”  had  accom¬ 
panied  the  giving  of  “  performances  ”  and  noted  that  Christ  accom¬ 
panied  his  precepts  by  “  miracles.”  The  importance  of  this  state¬ 
ment  is  not  its  truth,  which  any  one  may  know,  but  its  special 
relevance  to  Dr.  Funk  whose  saturation  with  biblical  ideas  was  not 
known  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

He  followed  this  by  a  long  statement  of  the  process  of  com¬ 
municating,  which,  though  it  is  not  evidential  taken  by  itself,  so 
conforms  to  what  I  have  observed  in  the  facts  generally,  that  it 
deserves  quoting.  He  had  been  preceded  by  Imperator  or  some 
such  personality  and  wanted  to  take  up  the  work  of  giving  a  special 
message  prepared  before  death. 

It  is  not  to  disconnect  myself  from  that  task,  but  to  relate  myself  to  it 
by  saturating  the  subliminal  mind,  which  merely  means  the  more  active 
mind  of  the  light,  of  saturating  that  with  my  own  personal  feelings  until 
I  recall  the  past  as  a  past,  as  a  part  of  myself,  and  not  as  a  detached  piece 
of  information,  which  seems  so  foreign  as  to  challenge  question  in  my 
own  mind,  and  thus  create  active  mind  currents  which  tend  to  produce 
several  sorts  of  evidence  and  make  for  incorrect  statements. 

One  thing  that  friends  who  have  tried  to  understand  the  working  of 
this  power  have  overlooked  is  that  the  sleeping  light  may  be  sleeping  physi¬ 
cally  and  have  awakened  more  active  brain  currents  than  when  in  actual 
physical  conscious  contact  with  the  present  friend,  and  so  it  is  not  enough 
to  be  sure  of  the  sleeping  state.  There  must  be  a  flowing  in  of  other 
currents  of  knowledge  in  sufficient  power,  force  if  you  will,  to  push  out  the 
remaining  elements  of  the  remaining  inhabitant. 

It  is  plain  to  me  that  it  takes  time  and  experience  to  do  this,  and  that 
even  when  it  is  done  for  one,  as  it  is  sometimes  by  a  guide  like  Imperator 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


305 

&c.,  that  guide  will  also  leave  somewhat  of  himself,  which  in  turn  must  he 
pushed  out,  so  when  a  man  like  Professor  James  or  Frank  Podmore  or 
like  myself  begins  to  reason  and  argue  and  preach,  you  may  know  he  is 
taking  possession  for  future  work  of  some  more  minute  and  definite  import. 

(I  understand.) 

It  is  for  this  reason,  I  believe,  that  the  familiar  guide  has  been  employed 
in  the  usual  work,  and  I  can  understand  it  as  never  before,  and  the  less 
that  familiar  guide  has  of  preconceived  ideas  of  the  methods  of  life  and 
general  activities,  the  more  free  it  is  to  express  without  bias  or  prejudice 
the  truthful  picturing  or  imagery  given  by  the  outside  and  disconnected 
spirit. 

(Is  a  guide  always  connected  with  a  message?) 

No,  unless  you  call  any  one  who  is  able  to  transmit  a  message. 

(I  meant  to  ask  if  a  spirit  always  had  the  help  of  another  when  giving 
a  message.) 

Do  you  mean  here  at  this  light  ? 

(Yes.)  [I  really  meant  anywhere,  but  would  not  divert  the  thought  ] 

Yes,  because  this  is  a  very  carefully  ordered  and  organized  work.  But, 
for  instance,  in  my  own  case  now,  I  am  alone  in  this  effort  to  write  and 
retain  my  will  to  recall,  but  as  I  took  control  I  was  helped  by  those  who 
watch  the  process,  and  if  I  had  imparted  to  my  wife  or  mother,  or  some 
other,  the  exact  words  I  wi.shed  to  write,  they  would  prompt  me,  but  I 
night  then  be  subject  to  imperfect  hearing  or  seeing  while  in  the  act  of 
controlling,  and  I  preferred  to  play  the  part  which  the  familiar  guide 
plays,  and  that  is  what  Imperator  tries  to  do  in  all  the  cases  where  he  is 
interested.  That  is  why  we  always  get  into  writing  conversationally. 

The  interesting  psychological  point  of  this  message,  in  its  refer¬ 
ence  to  saturating  the  medium  with  his  own  personality,  in  order 
to  transmit  a  specific  message,  is  that,  as  Mrs.  Chenoweth  came  out 
of  the  trance,  in  the  subliminal  stage,  she  thought  she  was  a  man, 
and  repudiated  the  idea  with  some  vigor. 

The  whole  picture  is  clear  for  those  familiar  psychologically  with 
the  work  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  though  the  passage  is  fragmentary 
and  tinged  with  her  own  terminology  now  and  then.  It  is  this. 
The  public  thinks  that  the  trance  is  important  in  securing  messages 
because  people  suppose  that  all  mental  activity  is  suspended  in  the 
trance  and  that  whatever  comes  in  that  state  is  the  pure  and  un¬ 
adulterated  thought  of  the  communicator.  This  is  an  illusion  and 
the  communicator  is  here  correcting  it.  The  subliminal  is  as  ac¬ 
tive  in  the  trance  as  the  normal  consciousness  out  of  it,  and  may  even 
be  enhanced  in  its  powers  according  to  the  communicator.  As 
long  as  that  is  not  in  rapport  with  the  spirit  or  transcendental  world, 


3o6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

we  would  get  only  products  of  the  subliminal,  even  though  it  was 
actually  stimulated  from  without.  But  put  it  in  rapport  with  the 
spiritual  world  and  transmit  to  the  “  dreaming  consciousness,”  to 
use  Mrs.  Sidgwick’s  terms,  the  thoughts  of  the  communicator,  and 
you  will  have  at  least  the  mingled  or  interfused  thoughts  of  com¬ 
municator  and  subconscious.  To  purify  the  message  the  communi¬ 
cator  must  inhibit  the  subliminal  stream  of  the  medium  or  so  satur¬ 
ate  it  with  his  own  personality  and  thoughts  as  to  get  their  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  writing  or  speech  of  the  medium  instead  of  its  own 
current  of  thought.  It  seems  also  that  it  is  necessary  to  eliminate 
the  impressions  left  on  the  mind  of  the  medium  by  some  previous 
communicator.  I  have  seen  many  evidences  of  this,  but  cannot 
quote  them  here.  They  are  analogous  to  the  changes  of  thought 
in  a  mind  without  knowing  that  a  change  of  stimulus  has  taken 
place.  That  is,  a  line  of  thought  in  one  direction  serves  to  hamper 
a  change  of  it  to  another  line. 

At  the  next  sitting,  February  13th,  he  mentioned  his  brother 
Benjamin  by  name  and  then  referred  first  to  Brooklyn  as  his  New 
York  home  and  immediately  to  the  New  Jersey  home,  using  the 
expression  “  N.  J.  home,  Mountain  View,”  and  explaining  that 
it  was  the  same  as  “  Montclair,”  as  I  first  read  the  word  “  Moun¬ 
tain.”  These  were  wholly  unknown  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  as  he  spent 
only  a  few  years  there  at  the  end  of  his  life. 

After  a  few  general  allusions  to  his  long  study  of  the  subject, 
he  said  he  had  some  manuscripts  of  value  and  many  old  photographs 
of  friends  and  added  that  his  “  family  was  never  much  on  having 
likenesses  taken.”  Inquiry  shows  that  he  had  some  important 
manuscripts  and  that  the  mother  was  averse  to  having  her  picture 
taken,  as  the  son  thinks.  He  then  went  on  in  a  confused  message 
to  say  that  he  had  “  two  places  where  he  could  keep  things  ”  and 
said  he  was  not  referring  to  his  office.  But  he  mentioned  some 
”  paraphernalia  ”  which  he  described  as  relics  of  his  experiments 
and  the  tricks  that  mediums  tried  to  play  on  him.  The  son  does 
not  recall  any  such  inner  room,  but  I  was  once  taken  to  an  inner 
room  in  his  office  where  he  had  kept  a  number  of  just  such  relics 
of  mediumistic  performances  and  we  examined  them  quite  care- 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK  307 

fully.  He  then  referred  to  having  seen  Professor  Muensterberg 
after  his  death.  But  the  allusion  was  not  evidential. 

A  curious  and  indirect  piece  of  evidence  was  a  communication 
from  his  mother  on  February  14th.  It  is  valuable  as  representing 
things  which  it  was  impossible  for  the  psychic  to  know,  whatever 
we  may  suppose  she  did  or  might  know  about  Dr.  Funk.  In  the 
first  place  she  spoke  of  him  by  his  Christian  name,  just  as  a  mother 
might  naturally  do,  and  evidently  referred  for  him  to  an  incident 
which  was  not  made  as  clear  the  first  time  as  was  necessary.  It  was 
from  her  reference  to  it  that  I  learned  what  the  earlier  allusion 
really  meant.  The  following  is  the  message. 

I  know  that  the  idea  of  medals  and  medallions  and  all  articles  which 
suggest  such  form  is  a  left  over  impression  of  his  most  striking  evidence, 
and  he  is  the  receiver  of  so  many  suggestions  of  that  nature  from  the  living 
and  the  dead,  because  of  his  known  interest  in  the  ancient  coin,  and  it 
always  comes  with  force  as  he  attempts  to  write. 

When  the  “  Widow's  Mite  ”  was  referred  to  before  as  a  “  medal¬ 
lion,”  I  did  not  even  suspect  at  the  time  that  he  meant  the  coin.  He 
had  not  used  the  technical  term.  Evidently  the  pictographic  proc¬ 
ess  had  concealed  from  the  control  and  the  psychic  what  the  in¬ 
tention  was  and  the  picture  could  be  described  and  interpreted  only 
from  its  external  appearance.  Here  this  is  repeated,  but  fortunately 
the  mother  got  the  association  between  the  “  medallion  ”  and  the 
“  ancient  coin  ’’  established,  so  as  to  show  what  the  meaning  was 
in  the  earlier  message.  The  mother  was  helping  the  son  by  acting 
as  his  intermediary,  and  though  it  is  buried  in  subliminal  coloring 
the  import  is  unmistakable. 

Immediately  following  this  message,  she  referred  to  Martin 
Luther  and  the  Wartburg  and  added  some  fragmentary  communi¬ 
cations  that  were  evidently  an  attempt  to  show  how  different  ver¬ 
sions  of  the  special  message  he  planned  to  give  might  be  caused 
by  the  difficulties  of  communication.  There  was  an  allusion  to 
different  translations  of  texts  and  evidently  the  reference  to  Luther 
and  the  Wartburg  was  to  the  translation  of  the  Bible  by  Luther 
when  there,  and  the  incident  was  probably  a  part  of  a  comparison 
to  show  that  his  message  might  take  as  various  forms  as  transla- 


3o8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

tions  of  biblical  texts.  The  value  of  the  point,  however,  is  that 
she,  when  living,  was  a  Lutheran  and  naturally  thought  of  associa.- 
tions  of  that  kind.  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about  his  re- 
ligiou§  affiliations  or  hers.  Even  I  only  accidentally  learned  what 
they  were,  as  he  had  long  since  been  connected  with  Congregational 
associations,  especially  under  Mr.  Beecher. 

It  was  March  28th,  1917,  before  he  appeared  again,  other  work 
having  occupied  my  time  and  attention.  When  he  came,  he  gave 
his  attention  to  a  ring,  a  pin,  possibly  breast  pin,  with  hair  in  it, 
and  an  earring,  saying  that  the  ring  was  either  that  of  his  mother 
or  wife.  This  message  came  by  the  indirect  method  and  hence 
through  the  control.  Consequently  the  doubt  about  the  person 
to  whom  it  belonged.  They  were  said  to  be  in  a  box.  A  ring  is 
too  common  an  object  to  make  specially  evidential,  unless  more  is 
said  of  it.  But  the  son  had  the  mother’s  ring  and  a  pin,  not  as  here 
described,  however,  in  a  box  for  safe  keeping.  But  he  knew  of 
no  earring.  Then  came  the  following: 

Has  he  ever  referred  to  a  family  record  of  births  and  deaths? 

(I  think  not.) 

This  looks  like  an  old  Bible  of  some  size  which  was  a  part  of  the 
family  life,  and  in  which  is  a  record  of  births,  and  I  see  7,  the  figure  7,  as 
if  it  were  a  count  of  some  names  recorded.  It  is  not  all  that  is  there, 
but  it  is  one  branch  which  is  so  recorded,  and  there  is  a  name  which  begins 
with  R.  That  is  all  for  this  time. 

On  March  30th  the  same  subject  was  taken  up  again  by  the  in¬ 
direct  method,  after  a  sort  of  humorous  apology  on  the  part  of 
Jennie  P.  for  showing  unusual  biblical  knowledge  which  she  dis¬ 
claimed  having. 

There  was  something  said  about  the  family  Bible.  I  think  G.  P.  took 
that  picture,  did  he  not? 

(Yes  he  did.) 

Well,  there  is  more  to  that ;  for  in  that  Bible  there  have  been  no  records 
kept  for  a  long  time,  but  there  you  will  find  a  space  between  two  groups 
of  records,  as  if  there  were  some  things  to  be  discovered  and  written  in, 
but  it  was  never  done. 

I  mean  by  the  discovery  that  some  questions  were  to  have  been  asked 
and  it  was  not  done,  and  the  record  remains  incomplete.  Mr.  Wordman 
[Jennie  P’s  name  for  Dr.  Funk]  says  that  there  have  been  several  attempts 
to  get  into  communication  with  him  at  another  place. 


DR.  ISAAC  K.  FUNK 


309 


I  of  course  knew  nothing  about  this  and  neither  did  the  son 
when  I  made  the  inquiry.  He  knew  that  there  was  an  old  family 
Bible,  but  had  to  make  inquiries  to  find  where  it  was.  After  some 
difficulty  he  located  it  and  found  that  there  were  two  groups  of 
names  there,  as  described,  one  of  them  with  six  or  seven  names, 
with  a  space  between  to  put  in  names  omitted.  There  was  none 
with  the  initial  R  in  the  first  group.  But  the  incident  is  sufficiently 
specific  to  be  an  excellent  one,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  might  be 
said  that  records  of  births  and  deaths  are  very  frequently  recorded 
in  family  Bibles.  But  the  other  details  make  it  somewhat  excep¬ 
tional. 

The  collective  import  of  these  facts  ought  to  be  clear.  We  may 
find  fault  with  any  one  or  each  incident  by  itself  as  measured  against 
all  knowledge  of  such  phenomena  in  other  cases.  But  it  will  not 
be  easy  to  offer  normal  explanations  for  the  complex  and  articulated 
whole.  It  happened  that,  in  spite  of  his  having  been  a  public  man, 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  little  or  nothing  about  him.  She  would  not 
even  have  known  his  name  but  for  the  fact  that  his  conversion 
to  Spiritualism  was  bruited  about  as  a  conquest.  Only  casual  in¬ 
formation  came  to  her  and  of  that  very  little.  The  intimate  and 
private  things  which  I  have  quoted  in  the  text  were  often  wholly 
unknown  to  me  and  I  very  frequently  saw  the  man  and  had  long- 
conversations  with  him.  Hence  when  we  take  the  group  of  private 
things  unknown  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  to  me,  their  collective  sig¬ 
nificance  is  not  to  be  despised,  and  it  is  synthetic  or  collective  im¬ 
port  that  constitutes  scientific  evidence. 

Now  when  you  have  eliminated  fraud  it  does  not  take  much  evi¬ 
dence  to  prove  the  supernormal,  and  when  you  once  get  the  super¬ 
normal,  it  is  not  much  more  difficult  to  exclude  the  alternatives  to 
spirits.  For  intelligent  readers  telepathy  will  have  no  standing 
in  the  explanation  of  these  phenomena,  unless  you  ascribe  powers 
too  far  beyond  access  to  my  own  knowledge.  That  process  applied 
to  reading  my  mind  is  effectually  excluded  here,  and  the  selective¬ 
ness  of  the  incidents  is  so  natural  on  the  hypothesis  that  it  is  Dr. 
Funk  who  is  the  source  of  them,  although  they  have  to  pass  through 
even  several  minds  before  I  get  them,  and  is  unescapable  save  by  sub¬ 
terfuges  which  have  no  scientific  standing  whatever. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


Mr.  CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT  was  United  States  Labor 
Commissioner  and  afterward  President  of  Clarke  College 
in  Worcester,  Mass.  This  is  all  that  I  knew  about  him, 
save  that  he  had  studied  his  problems  statistically.  I  found  by  in¬ 
quiry  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  knew  nothing  about  him  and  apparently 
had  never  even  heard  of  him.  His  name  was  given  in  sittings  con¬ 
nected  with  Professor  James  and  the  claim  made  that  he  and 
Professor  James  were  personal  friends.  This  turned  out  to  be 
erroneous  and  the  confusion  seems  to  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that 
Professor  James  did  know  Chauncy  Wright,  a  colleague  in  Harvard 
University.  During  several  sittings  various  incidents  identifying 
Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  together  with  his  full  name  came  through, 
but  they  were  not  striking  enough  to  emphasize  here.  Finally  the 
following  incidents  came  that  had  more  weight.  But  some  that 
might  have  been  excellent  were  not  verifiable  and  I  resorted  to  an 
experiment  described  below  that  came  to  better  results. 

In  one  of  my  own  experiments  with  the  automatic  writing  the 
following  incident  was  very  pertinent. 

C.  W.  places  his  hands  on  the  table  and  says  that  he  thought  all  the 
physical  phenomena  were  easily  explained  by  magnetic  influence  or  simple 
fraud,  but  he  has  reversed  that  opinion.  The  subtle  influence  of  spirit 
was  not  plain  to  him  except  as  a  factor  in  life.  The  communication  with 
the  dead  was  unsatisfactory  in  most  instances,  but  he  was  not  a  psychologist, 
and  so  did  not  comprehend  what  was  being  done. 

I  learned  from  the  family  what  I  did  not  previously  know,  that 
Mr.  Wright  had  witnessed  physical  phenomena  in  his  early  days, 
having  seen  table  tipping,  which  is  hinted  at  here  by  the  reference 
to  “  his  hands  on  the  table.”  But  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
results  and  gave  up  the  subject  as  one  in  which  conclusions  could 
not  be  assured.  He  was  not  a  psychologist.  He  was  a  religious 

310 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


311 

believer  and  accepted  the  existence  of  spirit,  but  not  communication 
with  the  dead.  All  this  was  unknown  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

He  was  stated  to  have  carried  a  powder  in  his  pocket  as  a  simple 
remedy  for  stomach  trouble  and  which  he  took  at  intervals  before 
his  death.  This  is  not  confirmed.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  not 
to  have  been  true.  But  it  is  possible  that  it  is  a  distorted  account 
of  a  later  incident  which  also  was  not  true  in  the  form  that  it  ap¬ 
pears,  but  seems  to  have  been  a  confused  reference  to  what  was 
true,  namely,  that  he  constantly  used  lithia  tablets  for  stomach 
or  other  trouble.  Then  came  the  following. 

I  see  also  a  great  pile  of  papers,  some  printed,  and  some  compiled  for 
printing  and  all  in  a  stack  on  a  table,  a  matter  in  which  he  was  engaged 
at  the  time  of  his  last  illness.  It  looks  like  some  work  which  was  left  him 
to  do  as  a  sort  of  referee.  There  is  a  large  number  of  cases  cited  and 
instances  named  and  figures  and  estimates  given,  and  it  is  all  before  him 
for  final  summing  up. 

Inquiry  shows  that  Mr.  Wright  w^as  engaged  on  the  “  Century 
Book  of  Facts  ”  a  short  time  before  his  death,  having  finished  it 
in  January  and  died  in  February.  None  of  these  facts  were  known 
by  me  or  by  Mrs.  Chenoweth. 

Immediately  after  this  came  a  reference  to  agriculture,  to  a 
new  building  apparently  connected  wdth  it  and  allusions  to  various 
interests  in  which  he  was  engaged  besides  “  his  particular  chair,” 
and  then  a  reference  to  statistics  which  were,  in  fact,  a  special  line 
of  work  with  him.  The  allusion  to  agriculture,  however,  seemed 
to  the  family  to  have  no  meaning  but  one  of  them  happened  to  re¬ 
mark  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Agri¬ 
cultural  College  in  Massachusetts,  and  it  is  possible  that  it  was  this 
he  was  trying  to  say  or  mention,  a  view  born  out  by  the  reference  to 
“  varied  interests.”  The  statement  that  “  in  his  school  there  was 
much  to  do  with  the  soil,  agriculture  and  the  like  ”  was  not  true  of 
the  college  of  which  he  was  President,  but  it  was  true  of  the  college 
of  whose  Board  he  was  a  member.  An  Aunt  A  was  mentioned 
that  no  one  recalls  or  recognizes,  but  the  name  Adams  given  almost 
immediately  was  that  of  one  of  his  friends.  He  was  said  to  have 
taken  a  trip  to  New  York  a  short  time  before  his  death.  Inquiry 
showed  that  this  was  true.  A  statement  about  the  relative  fre- 


312  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

quency  of  his  going  to  Boston  and  New  York  was  true  but  not  evi¬ 
dential,  as  it  might  be  expected.  Reference  to  his  preference  for 
Harvard  over  Columbia  has  no  evidential  meaning  if  verifiable, 
as  no  one  recognizes  any  special  reason  for  the  statement. 

He  was  said  to  have  had  two  rooms  for  his  work.  This  was 
true  of  the  college,  not  his  home,  and  then  a  reference  to  a  “  glass 
of  water  as  if  he  frequently  kept  one  near  him  as  he  worked.”  He 
did  keep  a  glass  of  water  near  for  a  lithia  tablet  when  he  wanted  it. 
Some  one  by  the  name  of  S.,  said  to  have  been  near  him,  and  for 
the  name  Sarah,  might  refer  to  his  father’s  second  wife  whose 
name  was  Sarah.  His  deceased  sister’s  name  was  Sophia. 

Some  of  the  most  complex  and  detailed  incidents  were  un¬ 
recognizable  and  so  left  the  collective  mass  of  evidence  somewhat 
weak.  I  found  from  interrogation  of  the  daughter,  however,  that 
some  things  were  recognizable  by  her  that  Mrs.  Wright  did  not 
recall  or  recognize.  The  consequence  was  that  I  resolved  on  an 
experiment  that  would  be  almost  as  good  as  cross  reference.  I 
found  the  daughter  was  willing  to  take  some  sittings.  She  was 
married  and  this  shut  off  direct  connections  in  the  name.  I  ar¬ 
ranged  for  sittings  to  be  taken  by  a  friend,  not  mentioning  name, 
sex  or  relation  to  my  work.  I  purposely  arranged  for  the  Star¬ 
light  trance.  Mrs.  Chenoweth’s  regular  work  is  done  by  this  little 
control  and  it  is  oral,  not  automatic  writing.  I  made  the  arrange¬ 
ments  as  if  the  sittings  had  no  connection  with  this  series  of  ex¬ 
periments  and  was  to  be  away  when  the  sittings  were  held.  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  had  no  hint  of  my  interest  in  them.  I  arranged  them 
as  if  they  were  for  some  stranger  wholly  unconnected  with  the 
present  experiments  and  such  was  the  impression  that  Mrs.  Cheno¬ 
weth  had.  The  lady  came  on  the  appointed  day,  giving  no  name 
and  conducting  the  sittings  with  as  much  care  and  prudence  as  any 
scientific  man  would  desire.  I  had  given  directions  on  that  point 
and  indicated  the  method  to  be  used  in  avoiding  betrayal  of  iden¬ 
tity  or  incidents  by  way  of  suggestion.  The  sequel  showed  that 
I  hardly  needed  to  give  this  advice,  as  she  made  an  excellent  sitter. 
The  first  two  sittings  show  a  repetition  of  some  of  the  incidents 
which  I  received,  reference  was  made  to  me  in  a  way  not  usual 
with  strangers  at  their  sittings,  Mr.  Wright’s  name  was  almost 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


313 

given,  and  at  a  later  sitting  of  my  own  the  lady  present  was  said  to 
have  been  Carroll  D.  Wright’s  daughter,  which  was  true,  though 
this  might  have  been  inferred  from  statements  of  the  sitter.  The 
incidents,  however,  communicated  at  the  daughter’s  sittings  are, 
many  of  them,  much  better  evidence  of  identity  than  any  that  I 
obtained. 

In  close  and  pertinent  connection  with  the  statement  about  his 
intellectual  habits  was  a  rather  long  passage  about  his  spending 
time  at  the  seashore  for  both  work  and  rest  and  social  intercourse 
with  important  friends.  This  was  true,  though  the  details  are  not 
given  in  a  manner  to  impress  the  skeptic  with  their  cogency.  Then 
came  the  statement  amid  some  general  talk  that  he  “  loved  human¬ 
ity  and  was  interested  in  the  problem,”  and  then  the  statement  that 
his  life  was  spent  in  the  city  rather  than  the  country  or  the  seaside 
and  that  he  went  back  and  forth  from  one  to  the  other.  This  was 
recognized  as  accurate,  though  we  can  hardly  make  it  evidential. 
In  a  few  minutes  came  a  more  striking  possibility. 

I  see  him  with  his  clothes  on ;  whether  he  passed  away  with  his  outer 
clothes,  like  coat  and  vest  and  those  things.  (Yes.)  Anyway  I  see  some¬ 
thing  put  on  him,  I  can’t  tell  you.  I  feel  clothes  on  and  I  feel  some  one 
going  into  my  pockets,  as  though  there  is  an  effort  to  see  what  is  in  my 
pockets,  for  something.  Do  you  know  anything  about  that? 

(No.) 

Did  he  pass  away  with  his  garments  on? 

(No.) 

Well,  I  feel  this,  he  was  not  taken  sick  was  he,  with  his  clothes  on? 

(Well,  he  had  them  on  when  the  doctor  told  him  he  had  better  go  tc 
bed.)  , 

This  was  followed  up  with  a  sort  of  explanation  of  the  con¬ 
nection  between  the  idea  of  dying  in  his  clothes  and  what  was  ad¬ 
mitted  by  the  sitter  which  may  be  explained  in  any  way  you  please 
as  subliminal  talk.  But  the  medium  came  at  least  near  to  hitting 
the  idea  admitted  by  the  sitter  after  the  main  facts  had  been 
stated. 

The  name  Henry  followed  the  reference  and  description  of  the 
child  and  it  is  not  clear  whether  it  has  any  important  meaning  or 
not.  Certainly  it  was  not  evidentially  related.  It  was  indicated 
that  he  was  outside  the  family  and  there  was  such  a  friend  by  that 


314  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

name  outside  the  family,  and  there  was  good  reason  for  mention¬ 
ing  him,  but  the  record  does  not  indicate  with  any  assurance  that  he 
was  meant.  The  next  incident  following  some  general  statements 
about  his  interest  in  this  subject  that  are  not  important  has  some 
specific  interest. 

Now  do  you  know  anything  about  a  little  thing  that  looks  like  a 
case?  There  are  several  little  compartments  in  it.  You  know  I  see  al¬ 
most  like  wood  and  little  compartments,  and  up  in  those  compartments  are 
things  that  I  can  take  up.  You  know  they  are  little  grains  of  something, 
like  round  flat  things  that  if  I  dropped  them  they  would  drop  down  like 
peas  or  things  like  that,  like  little  pebbles,  but  they  are  in  compartments, 
as  though  they  are  things  that  he  had  worked  over  and  had  them  to  use 
for  something.  Do  you  know  anything  about  this? 

(Why  I  don’t  seem  to  recall.  You  mean  connected  with  his  work?) 

Yes,  they  look  like  grains,  you  know,  as  though  they  are  all  separate; 
they  are  larger  than  grains  of  sand  and  they  look  something  like  little  pills, 
you  know. 

(Yes.) 

Little  pills,  only  dark  colors.  If  they  were  white  I  would  call  them 
globules,  but  they  seem  to  be  dark  and  brown  and  different  colors  and  none 
of  them  are  disks.  You  know  disks? 

(Yes.) 

Well,  they  are  in  different  compartments,  as  though  here ’s  a  few, 
there ’s  a  few  and  there 's  a  few,  and  I  take  them  up.  I  don’t  put  them 
together.  I  look  at  them,  as  though  they  are  for  a  different  purpose,  but 
they  come  in  a  different  part  of  his  work. 

(His  life?) 

His  life.  Did  he  ever  study  anything  where  he  would  have  some  of 
those  little  things  in  it?  He  was  not  a  doctor  himself  was  he? 

(No.) 

Well  do  you  know  if  he  ever  knew  a  doctor  who  had  these  little  things: 

(Yes,  I  think  he  was  very  fond  of  an  uncle  and  studied  with  him.) 

[A  little  later  after  some  non-evidential  talk  about  the  same  incidents 
allusion  was  made  to]  a  wooden  box  where  they  were  in  compartments 
before  they  were  put  into  other  smaller  things,  given  out  to  the  people. 

The  very  proximate  character  of  this  incident  is  clear  in  the 
daughter’s  note,  which  says :  “  He  studied  medicine  with  an  uncle 

who  was  a  physician  and  later  was  in  a  drug  store  for  a  time. 
There  he  was  also  called  Doctor.” 

I  think  almost  any  one  would  recognize  the  description  of  a 
physician’s  case  before  it  was  admitted  by  the  sitter  and  the  co¬ 
incidence  would  not  naturally  be  guessed  in  the  life  of  Carroll  D. 
Wright,  which  the  admission  of  the  sitter  makes  characteristic  of 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


315 

his  early  life.  It  refers  as  much  to  the  identity  of  the  uncle  as  to 
his  own,  though  not  adequate  in  either  case  to  determine  that  iden¬ 
tity. 

This  first  sitting  ended  without  any  incident  of  more  important 
note  and  in  the  second  one,  the  next  day,  after  the  preliminary  com¬ 
munications  in  getting  adjustment,  which  were  unevidential,  and 
after  an  allusion  to  a  lady  who  is  recognizable  as  his  mother-in- 
law,  and  the  mention  of  an  Elsie  who  was  known,  but  without  recog¬ 
nizable  importance  here,  the  following  came  at  some  length. 

Do  you  know  anything  about  music  that  he  would  be  interested  in?  I 
see  a  big  sheet  of  music  and  I  see  all  the  notes  and  everything  on  it  as  if  it 
were  all  printed,  and  I  see  him  hold  that  in  his  hand.  I  don’t  know 
whether  he  made  music,  but  there  is  something  like  tones,  you  know. 
He  does  n’t  seem  to  do  it  with  his  hands  so  much  as  he  does  to  sing.  Do 
you  know  if  he  sang? 

(Yes,  he  was  very  fond  of  singing.) 

[Then  followed  considerable  talk  about  his  unfinished  life  with  vague 
allusions  to  music  before  the  ideas  drifted  into  his  general  topic  and  then 
came  the  following.] 

Well  it  seems  as  if  he  used  to  go  somewhere  where  there  was  par¬ 
ticular  music  sung.  I  can’t  tell  you  exactly,  but  I  see  people  standing  up 
several  of  them,  more  like  a  group  of  people  who  express  together,  you 
know,  like  a  choir  or  a  quartette  or  a  group  of  people  who  express  music, 
and  I  see  him  going  where  he  was  looking  right  up  at  them,  you  know, 
listening  to  them.  Was  he  a  church  man  ?  Did  he  go  to  church  ? 

(Always.) 

Well  I  see  him  as  though  looking  at  a  choir  where  I  hear  them  sing 
and  that  is  one  of  the  beautiful  parts  of  the  service,  and  he  says,  ‘  That  is 
pretty  good  for  me  to  say,’  as  though  it  meant  something  special  when  he 
said  it,  you  understand. 

(Yes  that  is  very  good.) 

Of  this  the  daughter  says.  “  My  father  was  very  fond  of  music 
and  sang  in  the  church  choir  for  eight  years  or  more.”  He  seems 
then  to  have  had  the  retirement  from  the  choir  symbolically  indi¬ 
cated  in  the  picture  of  his  looking  at  the  choir  while  he  is  also 
represented  first  as  in  it. 

Allusion  to  a  child  and  its  being  in  church  with  him  was  not 
accurate.  He  had  a  deceased  grandchild  but  they  were  never  in 
church  together  while  living.  There  followed  an  allusion  to  a 
woman  with  general  description  that  could  not  be  definitely  iden¬ 
tified  for  the  reason  that,  so  far  as  the  account  goes,  it  might 


3i6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

refer  either  to  a  sister-in-law  or  a  mother-in-law,  both  of  whom 
are  dead  and  the  person  alluded  to  was  definitely  indicated  as 
deceased. 

After  the  long  effort  to  get  the  name  beginning  with  E  and 
ending  with  Elsie  the  following  perfectly  definite  incident 
came. 

I  see  a  chair  and  it  has  no  rockers,  but  it  is  rather  big  and  round  and 
very  comfortable,  and  it  is  a  chair.  It  is  not  a  Morris  chair.  It  has  got 
a  round  sort  of  a  seat  to  it,  and  I  see  this  man.  I  am  trying  to  connect 
everything  with  him  now. 

(Yes  that  is  nice.) 

And  I  see  him  come  in  and  sit  down  in  this  chair.  It  is  so  com¬ 
fortable.  He  throws  back  his  head  and  sits  there  and  rests.  It  seems 
as  though  I  want  to  sit  down  and  just  gather  myself  a  little  bit,  and  as 
though  I  would  rest  before  I  go  on  to  do  something  else,  and  this  chair 
I  think  is  in  his  own  house,  because  I  come  right  in.  About  the  first 
place  I  go  I  sit  down  in  that  chair.  It  is  n’t  up  stairs ;  it  is  down  stairs. 
I  come  in  and  sit  down  in  that  chair  and  rest.  He  had  the  funniest  little 
habit  of  coming  in  and  sitting  down  where  he  was,  as  though  he  wanted  to 
take  a  minute  to  get  adjusted  and  then  he  goes  on  and  it  is  what  he 
wants  to  do. 

(Do  you  see  any  color  in  it?) 

Yes,  brown,  you  know. 

(That  is  very  good.) 

This  was  followed  by  reference  to  the  associations  of  the  chair 
and  mention  of  the  man’s  religious  nature.  The  association  would 
not  be  suggestive  to  those  who  did  not  know  the  man’s  habits. 
The  daughter  speaks  of  the  incident  in  her  note. 

A  brown  velour  chair  —  rocking  slightly  on  a  stationary  base  — 
was  very  big  and  round  and  fitted  his  length  exactly.  It  stood  last  in 
the  library  beyond  the  wide  hall,  inside  as  one  entered  and  when  he 
came  in  he  generally  took  off  his  hat  and  coat,  hung  them  up  in  the  big 
closet  and  then  sat  down  to  rest  in  his  own  chair.  It  was  not  a  Morris 
chair,  but  the  arms  were  solid  and  it  came  around  at  the  side  just  as  he 
liked.  He  would  read  and  then  put  his  head  back  and  rest  as  though 
he  were  dreaming,  but  with  every  faculty  alert  and  then  after  he  would 
talk  either  of  what  he  had  been  reading  or  of  something  suggested  by 
it.  His  life  was  one  of  service  to  humanity  and  he  was  deeply  spiritual 
and  religious  in  the  highest  sense. 

The  following  interesting  passage  came  after  the  allusion  to  the 
chair  which  we  have  just  described. 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


317 

I  wonder  if  yoi  know  anything  about  some  clothes.  It  looks  to  me 
like  a  black  suit  It  is  very,  very  dark  and  looks  more  like  black  than 
anything  and  I  see  him  so  —  well  I  think  it  is  fussy  about  handkerchiefs. 
I  always  want  to  be  sure  that  I  have  some,  some  not  one.  You  know 
what  I  mean. 

(Yes.) 

That  I  have  got  one  here  and  one  here.  I  want  enough  you  know. 
And  I  see  this  suit,  one  that  he  had  worn  as  if  it  were  a  suit  for  a  special 
occasion,  I  can’t  tell  you  what,  but  it  is  one  that  he  had  worn  in  special 
ways  and  things  he  had  done,  as  though  he  is  put  away  in  that.  You 
know  when  his  body  is  put  away  it  is  put  away  in  a  suit  he  had.  It 
isn’t  like  a  new  one  or  a  robe  or  anything,  but  it  is  like  a  suit  he  had. 

The  daughter  replies  to  inquiry  that  “  he  was  not  fussy  about  any¬ 
thing  but  liked  plenty  of  fresh  handkerchiefs  and  had  extra  ones, 
as  I  suppose  all  men  do  in  their  pockets.”  Of  the  coat  incident 
she  says:  “  He  wore  his  frock  coat  down  town  the  last  time  he 
went  in  January,  as  it  was  his  warmest  one  and  he  felt  cold.  It 
was  washed  and  made  all  clean  and  neat  before  it  was  put  on  after 
his  death.  It  was  the  coat  he  wore,  of  course  when  he  lectured 
or  dressed  a  little  more  than  in  a  sack  coat.” 

The  next  incident  is  perhaps  quite  as  definite  and  regards  his 
watch  which  the  details  will  explain. 

Well,  let  me  see.  There  is  a  little  black  silk  thing  with  a  bit  of  gold 
on  it.  It  looks  more  like  a  watch  chain  of  black,  you  know. 

(Little  fob?) 

Yes  with  a  little  bit  of  gold  on  it.  It  is  very  simple,  very  plain,  but 
it  is  black  and  I  know  it  is  soft  like  silk. 

(Yes.) 

And  he  puts  that  right  down  here,  you  know,  and  on  the  end  of  it  a 
watch.  Do  you  know  if  he  had  one  like  that? 

(Yes.) 

Well,  do  you  know  his  watch? 

(Yes,  perfectly.) 

Well,  I  see  this  watch  as  though  it  was  a  good  one  and  that  he  had 
some  time  and  I  like  very  much.  I  don’t  know  as  that  is  already  given 
away,  but  if  it  isn’t,  you  know  just  where  that  is  going,  as  though  it  is 
saved  for  somebody  till  they  get  big  enough  for  it. 

(That  is  quite  true.) 

The  daughter’s  note  is :  “  He  had  an  old  fashioned  gold  watch 

fob  on  a  piece  of  silk  ribbon.  His  watch  was  a  special  one  he  was 
very  fond  of.  He  carried  it  for  many  years  and  it  was  understood 
that  it  would  go  to  his  grandson  nametl  for  him.” 


3i8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  next  incident  is  a  characteristic  of  more  than  usual  interest, 
as  it  is  one  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  ascertain  in  any  normal  way. 

I  see  another  little  way.  It  goes  along  with  his  not  liking  the  ceremon¬ 
ial  and  all  that,  but  anything  he  dislikes  is  these.  You  know  white  things 
that  go  over  beds,  pillow  shams?  Well,  those  things  bother  him. 

(That  is  very  good,  very  true.) 

I  never  heard  any  spirit  say  it  before,  but  suddenly  I  see  a  bed,  I  see 
something  like  all  fussed  up :  sometimes  when  he  had  to  go  away  and  sleep 
in  other  people’s  beds  and  it  would  be  as  though  I  like  my  own  bed. 
If  I  could  be  at  home  in  my  own  bed,  no  nonsense  about  shams.  The 
very  name  is  distasteful  to  him  and  all  this  lace  business.  He  is  thor¬ 
oughly  a  man.  He  likes  comfortable  things  and  pretty  things  and  all  that, 
but  give  me  a  bed  with  pillows. 

The  daughter’s  note  on  this  incident  is  as  follows.  “  He  was 
impatient  always  of  fuzzy  things  on  beds  and  going  about  as  much 
as  he  did,  often  spoke  of  lace  spreads,  etc.,  that  bothered  him.” 

The  following  incidents  were  evidently  touched  on  in  the  auto¬ 
matic  writing  but  not  made  clear  enough  for  any  possible  recogni¬ 
tion.  Later  still  I  brought  the  subject  up  for  clearer  identification 
and  obtained  some  interesting  data. 

There  is  another  thing.  It  looks  to  me  more  like  a  growing  vine. 
There  is  something  growing  around  a  building.  I  am  not  in  the  same 
building  where  I  was  before  where  I  saw  the  boys,  but  I  am  off  here  to 
another  building  that  is  a  detached  place,  you  know,  detached  house. 

(Yes.) 

And  there  is  a  little  vine  like  woodbine  or  ivy  something  that  grows 
up  all  over  it.  It  is  very  pretty.  There  are  two  posts  like  a  drivewaj',  and 
two  big  tall  posts.  They  are  made  of  stone.  It  is  a  pretty  place,  you  know, 
but  it  is  gravel.  I  hear  a  carriage  grind  on  the  gravel  and  I  step  out  just 
inside  these  posts,  and  here  is  a  detached  building,  one  that  looks  more 
like  a  home  and  I  go  in  there  and  I  am  received  in  there.  I  call  it  in¬ 
side  grounds  where  there  are  posts  and  a  driveway  and  there  is  some¬ 
body  there.  I  don’t  know  who  it  is,  but  it  seems  like  a  man  as  big  as  he 
is,  as  though  they  are  equals. 

(Yes.) 

Perhaps  doing  the  same  thing  he  is,  only  at  another  point,  you  under¬ 
stand. 

(Yes.) 

Well  he  goes  in  here,  but  it  is  the  funniest  thing,  as  though  this  vine 
is  all  turned  red  like  fall. 

(Yes.) 

As  though  the  autumn  and  it  is  one  of  the  last  trips  he  made  you 
know,  with  those  autumn  things  around,  pretty,  beautiful  but  I  feel  a 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


319 

cense  of  the  end.  You  know  I  don’t  know  why  I  feel  it,  but  I  feel  it  at 
that  place.  Do  you  know  anything  about  that  ? 

(Would  that  be  his  own  home?) 

Did  he  have  a  house  like  that? 

(Yes.) 

Did  he  have  some  vines  growing  there  just  inside  the  drive,  like  a 
drive  in,  and  anything  like  woodbine? 

(I  think  it  was  on  the  veranda.) 

No,  this  is  not  the  place.  It  is  n’t  his  home.  It  is  away.  Where  did 
he  come  from  when  he  came  home,  some  trip  he  made. 

(He  went  to  Washington.) 

I  see  a  drive  in  and  I  see  this  vine  and  it  is  fall,  you  know. 

(Yes,  it  was.) 

It  is  fall  time,  because  the  reason  I  see  the  vine  is  to  show  me  the 
time,  and  it  is  all  red,  autumn  colors,  and  I  see  him  come  home  from  there 
and  die.  Do  you  know  what  I  mean  ? 

(Yes.) 

I  come  home  weary.  That  is  the  end;  that  is  the  last  trip.  He  is 
telling  you  he  would  do  it  all  over  again.  That  is  what  I  see  as  though 
that  was  almost  too  much  for  him. 

(That  is  true.) 

Having  found  a  possible  clue  to  the  incident  about  the  vine  clad 
building  I  resolved  to  ask  that  Mr.  Wright  be  given  a  chance  to 
communicate  and  throw  light  on  the  matter.  I  therefore  expressed 
the  desire  to  have  him,  having  had  it  strongly  in  mind  the  day  be¬ 
fore  I  put  it  directly  and  during  the  beginning  of  the  sitting  of 
December  19th,  1911.  Apparently  my  desire  was  already  known 
as  the  response  was  so  prompt.  The  following  is  the  record  of 
what  occurred,  after  I  had  expressed  my  wish  to  hear  from  him 
again. 

Well  C.  D.  W.  is  here. 

(All  right.  He  will  remember  describing  or  referring  to  a  vine  cov¬ 
ered  house.  The  family  does  not  recall  it  and  I  wish  more  about  it.  If 
he  can  tell  where  it  is  and  what  it  is  used  for  I  may  be  able  to  verify  it.) 

Was  it  a  brick  or  stone  house. 

(He  did  not  say  and  I  do  not  know,  or  if  he  said  I  do  not  recall.) 

He  shows  me  a  house  in  the  South  where  he  went  not  long  before  his 
passing  where  there  were  vines  all  about  and  where  the  effect  was  of 
green  growing  things  about  the  place.  It  was  there  he  was  entertained  I 
think  and  as  he  was  recalling  the  past  that  picture  came  in  vividly  before 
him  and  may  have  been  interpolated  as  a  part  of  the  communication. 

(I  understand  and  can  he  say  what  use  the  house  had?) 

It  looks  more  like  a  building  in  which  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of 


320  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  work  was  carried  on.  Do  you  know  if  he  went  to  the  South  to 
speak  to  some  educational  workers  where  there  was  a  set  of  buildings 
devoted  to  work. 

(No,  but  I  shall  inquire,  though  I  know  of  a  meeting  not  long  before 
his  death.) 

In  the  South. 

(That  depends  on  the  starting  point  and  what  .  .  .)  [Writing  began.] 

South  of  here  and  South  of  Worcester.  (Yes.)  But  not  far  South. 

I  go  with  him  in  a  southerly  direction  and  see  these  buildings,  a  group 
of  them  and  among  them  this  one  with  the  vines.  You  know  how  much 
he  was  interested  in  all  growing  things  and  particularly  in  many  kinds 
of  vines.  Do  you  know  this. 

(No,  I  do  not,  and  perhaps  he  can  tell  about  the  country  about  that 
building.) 

I  will  see.  There  are  many  trees  and  I  see  it  is  not  a  city  like  N.  Y. 
[New  York].  You  did  not  have  N.  Y.  in  mind  did  you? 

(No  I  did  not.) 

For  it  is  not  N.  Y.  which  I  mean  but  instantly  when  I  made  the 
comparison  I  became  aware  of  his  .interest  in  several  N.  Y.  people  and  in¬ 
stitutions  but  the  place  to  which  I  refer  is  not  so  large  or  thickly  settled 
and  is  not  a  hilly  country  but  rather  pretty  and  has  some  special  interest 
for  him  as  he  must  have  gone  there  with  a  specific  work  in  mind.  It  has 
buildings  of  common  interest.  I  mean  like  a  community  of  interests  but 
I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  a  university  or  not.  I  should  rather  think  it 
something  of  that  kind.  Wait  a  little  until  I  can  see.  Do  you  know  any- 
think  about  a  chapel  where  he  went? 

(No.) 

I  see  a  building  which  is  like  a  church  or  chapel  where  there  are 
many  seats.  I  am  inside  and  it  is  vacant,  but  it  is  a  building  used  for 
audiences.  Now  he  was  entertained  at  a  place.  What  is  the  W.  for? 
Do  you  know? 

(No,  I  do  not  but  go  on.)  [Probably  Washington.] 

I  see  a  large  white  house  and  it  is  so  quiet  and  lovely  about  the  place 
and  there  are  people  coming  and  going  from  other  places  but  the  house 
where  he  stays  is  quiet.  It  is  strange  that  you  do  not  know  about  this 
place  in  the  South  where  he  was  entertained  and  where  all  this  description 
has  a  bearing.  It  may  be  a  place  of  which  you  are  not  aware  now,  but 
it  is  there  that  I  find  the  vine  covered  house  and  I  see  some  water 
and  boats.  It  looks  like  fresh  water  more  as  if  it  were  a  lake  of  some  size. 
It  is  all  a  very  beautiful  place  and  surroundings,  but  it  is  entirely  on  ac¬ 
count  of  engagements  that  he  goes  there  for  he  always  could  be  at  home. 

(Tell  more  about  that  water  and,  if  you  can,  the  name  of  it.) 

I  will  do  all  I  can,  but  I  see  several  kinds  of  boats  on  it  which  leads  me 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  used  for  all  kinds  of  pleasure  craft  and  dotted 
around  the  shores  are  houses  and  cottages  and  there  are  trees  and  hills 
back  from  it.  It  is  most  beautiful.  Do  you  know  if  he  went  to  a  lake  and 
was  entertained  there? 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


321 

(No  I  do  not,  but  you  would  clear  the  whole  thing  up  by  an  initial  of 
the  name  of  the  water.) 

Yes  I  suppose  so  and  I  have  no  idea  why  it  does  not  come.  It  may  be 
that  he  is  not  in  working  order  this  afternoon.  He  is  talking  with  VV.  J. 
They  are  as  usual  most  talkative  and  interested  in  each  other.  Just  now  I 
see  a  long  bridge.  It  is  rather  more  than  the  ordinary  length  and  is  of 
wood  with  some  girders  high  on  each  side  and  the  water  is  so  clear  and  the 
reflections  are  as  perfect  as  the  things  themselves. 

When  the  vine  clad  house  was  mentioned  in  the  automatic  writing 
I  had  hoped  that  it  would  prove  a  good  incident.  But  no  member 
of  the  family  recognized  it  as  having  any  meaning  at  all.  When 
it  was  thus  repeated  with  more  detail  it  still  had  no  meaning  for 
them.  As  he  had  lived  in  Washington  a  number  of  years  I  sus¬ 
pected  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  but  found  that  he  had  no  office 
in  it  and  no  associations  with  it.  He  had  been  entertained  at  the 
White  House,  but  Ex-President  Roosevelt  did  not  recall  any  enter¬ 
tainment  of  the  man  in  the  fall  of  1908  when  Mr.  Wright  attended 
the  meeting  of  the  Carnegie  Board  of  Trustees  in  Washington.  I 
learned  from  the  head  of  the  Institution,  however,  that  Mr.  Wright 
had  remained  at  the  New  Willard  Hotel  during  that  period  and 
where  the  Board  met,  I  believe  in  those  days.  The  daughter,  how¬ 
ever,  casually  remarked  that  her  father  had  been  on  the  Board  of 
the  Hackley  School  at  Tarrytown,  New  York.  Inquiry  immedi¬ 
ately  showed  that  it  had  vines  over  it  and  I  then  ascertained  that 
Mr.  Wright  had  attended  the  Board  Meeting  of  this  School  in  the 
fall  of  1908  a  few  months  before  his  death  but  did  not  attend  the 
later  meeting  in  January  a  few  weeks  before  his  death.  I  then 
visited  the  School  and  ascertained  the  truth  of  further  incidents. 
The  building  is  not  covered  with  vines,  as  the  communications  might 
imply,  but  has  a  number  of  vines  at  different  places  on  it  and  may 
some  day  be  covered.  There  is  a  little  chapel  near  it  in  which  Mr. 
Wright,  according  to  the  statement  of  the  Principal,  had  talked  to 
the  boys.  There  is  a  building  back  of  the  main  School  edifice  which 
resembles  a  laboratory  very  much  but  is  the  infirmary.  The  wooden 
bridge  spoken  of  I  could  not  find  in  my  personal  investigations,  but 
the  Principal  writes  me  that  there  was  such  a  bridge  near  the  build¬ 
ing,  but  that  it  was  recently  removed.  There  are  stone  posts  at  the 
entrance  to  the  grounds,  but  there  are  no  vines  near  them  or  near  the 


322  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

entrance.  These  are  near  and  behind  the  chapel  and  are  a  very 
large  collection  of  them,  very  noticeable  to  one  driving  in  and  up 
to  the  School.  From  points  on  or  near  the  ground  Haverstraw 
Bay  which  is  an  enlargement  of  the  Hudson  River,  can  be  seen  with 
the  mountains  beyond,  making  an  extraordinarily  fine  view.  ^ Pleas¬ 
ure  boats  are  numerous  on  the  shores  during  the  summer  season. 

The  building  is  white  stone  and  apparently  the  allusion  to  “  W  ” 
had  brought  associations  of  Washington  to  Mr.  Wright’s  mind 
and  the  White  House  where  he  had  also  been  entertained  by  Presi¬ 
dent  Roosevelt.  This  also  has  vines  on  it.  But  the  other  incidents 
do  not  apply.  The  Hackley  School  stands  in  a  fine  wood  of  large 
trees  on  one  of  the  high  hills  of  the  Hudson  River.  The  indica¬ 
tion  that  it  was  not  hilly  is  therefore  incorrect.  But  this  is  partly 
corrected  when  alluding  to  hills  and  trees  in  connection  with  the 
“  lake,”  Haverstraw  Bay.  Whether  the  place  should  be  described 
as  hilly  or  not  would  depend  on  the  amount  and  locality  of  the  place 
gotten  into  the  “  mental  picture  ”  while  communicating. 

The  place  was  southwest  from  Boston,  not  “  South.”  He  was 
entertained  at  the  place,  but  the  principal  does  not  recall  definitely 
whether  he  was  entertained  there  at  the  time  of  the  last  Board 
meeting  which  he  attended  in  the  fall  before  his  death  in  February, 
though  he  says:  “A  rather  unreliable  memory  on  my  part  sug¬ 
gests  the  likelihood  that  his  visit  was  in  the  fall  of  1908.”  He 
adds  also :  “I  am  sure  that  he  did  spend  the  night  here  at  sometime 
within  a  year  or  two  before  his  death.” 

The  Board  meetings  were  held  in  New  York,  and  hence  the  perti¬ 
nence  of  the  immediate  allusion  to  that  city  and  friends  there  after 
saying  that  the  building  was  not  in  New  York  but  in  the  country. 

After  the  long  reference  to  the  vine  clad  building  and  indication 
that  it  was  associated  with  the  end  of  his  life,  he  turned  to  some 
incidents  associated  with  the  funeral  and  which  are,  of  course,  rep¬ 
resentative  of  posthumous,  or  what  Mr.  Myers  called  post-terrene 
knowledge. 

There  is  another  very  sweet  thing  and  it  seems  to  be  about  his  body. 
All  over  his  casket,  you  know,  everything  is  lovely  there,  but  there  is  some 
thing  all  green,  you  know,  like  drapings  of  it.  Funny  thing  but  it  is  almost 
like  laurel. 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT  323 


(Yes.) 

Were  you  there? 

(I  was  there.) 

Do  you  know  anything  like  some  green  that  seems  to  be  half  draped. 
Whether  it  is  laurel  or  smilax,  it  is  something  that  is  all  green  and  it  is 
draped  in  a  way  from  his  bier. 

(Yes.) 

And  then  I  see  a  great  big  wreath,  oh  an  immense  one,  that  is  so  big, 
but  it  isn’t  green  like  the  rest,  it  is  red.  (Yes.)  Flowers  in  it  but  it  is 
red,  red,  red,  like  red  leaves  and  then  here  and  there  roses,  I  think. 

(Yes.) 

They  look  like  roses  to  me.  There  is  something  else  with  that.  You 
know  they  are  mixed  in  little  clusters  here  and  there,  I  think.  That  is, 
from  somebody  special,  this  big  wreath,  you  know. 

(Yes.) 

And  then  I  see  there  was  something  of  flowers,  looks  like  a  basket. 
Do  they  ever  send  baskets  to  funerals? 

(Yes.) 

Well  this  is  a  tall  thing.  I  don’t  know  whether  it  is  a  basket  or  what 
it  is,  but  it  is  hanging  from  here  and  a  ribbon  on  it.  It  really  is  a  basket, 
a  basket  of  flowers.  It  seems  as  though  that  is  from  one  person.  The 
wreath  is  from  more.  It  is  from  several,  and  the  basket  is  from  one. 
Funniest  thing:  And  you  don’t  seem  to  remember  it. 

(There  were  many  baskets,  of  course,  many  things.) 

Of  course.  A  man  like  that  would  have.  Wait  till  I  see  something. 

(Was  there  anything  else  over  the  casket  that  you  see?) 

Do  you  mean  a  banner?  Was  that  what  you  meant? 

(Anything  like  that.) 

Yes,  there  is  something.  I  don’t  mean  a  flag  and  I  don’t  know  whether 
you  mean  a  flag  or  not.  There  are  two  or  three  things.  There  is  something 
like  a  spearhead  that  this  thing  is  on.  It  might  be  a  cross,  but  it  is  silk 
or  satin.  It  is  shiny  and  is  not  red,  white  and  blue  flag.  It  is  some  other 
color,  and  I  should  think  that  is  a  thing  that  he  belonged  to,  as  though  it 
came  like  you  might  have  college  colors  or  a  banner  that  belonged  to  some 
particular  organization  that  he  was  in. 

(Yes.) 

That  is  what  I  see;  like  there  is  something  there  with  blue  or  purple: 
it  is  like  that,  but  a  little  gold  around  it  too,  and  this  spearhead  thing.  Do 
you  know  anything  about  it?  I  think  there  was  a  flag  there  all  right;  but 
that  is  not  what  I  see.  I  see  these  other  things  first.  I  think  there  is  a 
flag,  but  it  is  off  the  other  way.  I  am  not  looking  at  that  at  all.  Then  I 
see  a  man  who  is  saying  something,  as  though  it  is  a  eulogy.  That  is  the 
thing  you  say  about  him. 

(Yes.) 

Well,  do  you  know  a  tall,  slim,  oldish  man  with  a  quiet  nice  face  and 
gray  hair,  but  very  quiet  and  dignified,  who  said  something  about  him? 

(Yes.) 

Wasn’t  that  the  man  who  stood  up  there.  (Yes.)  And  he  has  a  very 


324  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

beautiful  quiet  voice.  This  man  was  a  friend  of  years.  They  didn’t  go 
into  any  extended  eulogy.  You  know  it  was  that  came  after,  but  this  time 
it  was  a  short  one.  You  know  that  is  what  he  would  prefer. 

The  daughter’s  notes  show  that  this  passage  contains  very  strik¬ 
ing  coincidences,  perhaps  of  an  unusually  important  kind. 

“  My  mother’s  wreath  of  red  calyx  leaves  was  on  the  casket  and 
all  about  were  others,  baskets,  wreaths  and  flowers  of  all  kinds  and 
pieces.  I  think  there  was  laurel  and  evergreen  at  the  church. 

“  At  the  church,  the  four  banners  formed  an  unusual  decoration. 
Over  the  casket  was  the  silk  flag.  At  either  side  of  the  pulpit  stood 
these  flags  or  banners,  each  on  a  stick  with  the  end  forming  a  spear- 
point.  The  flag  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  Honor,  the  flag  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  I  think  the  others.  They 
were  of  silk  and  were  most  effective.  These  precious  banners  were 
in  charge  of  some  one  sent  by  the  Loyal  Legion  of  Honor  who 
never  allowed  them  to  leave  his  sight.” 

There  followed  this  a  reference  to  the  name  Charles  which  is  that 
of  one  of  his  dearest  friends,  and  then  an  attempt  to  give  his  own 
name.  I  shall  not  quote  it  in  full  as  it  is  too  long,  but  suffice  to  say 
that  the  “  W  ”  came  easily  enough  and  the  last  letter  “  t.”  He  was 
referred  to  as  Doctor,  but  distinguishing  this  from  a  physician  by 
saying  he  “  was  not  a  pill  doctor.” 

There  were  many  other  incidents  of  great  evidential  interest  that 
were  given.  They  would  require  too  much  space  to  present  them, 
and  it  is  hard  to  tell  whether  they  are  more  or  less  cogent  than  such 
as  I  have  given.  One  long  set  of  messages  evidently  referred  to 
Senator  George  F.  Hoar  who  was  the  life  long  friend  of  Mr. 
Wright  and  who  urgently  advised  him  to  go  to  Clark  College.  Mr. 
Wright’s  name  was  given  in  full  and  the  pet  name  by  which  he 
called  his  daughter.  A  little  bag  which  he  had  used  in  his  early 
life  was  rather  minutely  described.  Several  names  of  relatives 
were  given  and  more  especially  important  were  references  to  per¬ 
sons  and  incidents  about  which  members  of  the  family  had  to  in¬ 
quire  among  remote  relatives  for  confirmation. 

The  facts  that  Clark  College  was  not  far  —  about  35  miles  — 
from  the  home  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  that  Mr.  Wright  was  so 
well  known  to  the  general  public  enable  doubters  to  raise  the  sus- 


CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT 


325 

picion  that  at  least  some  of  the  facts  about  him  would  either  be 
public  property  or  be  easily  acquired  in  various  ways.  This  is  true 
of  the  most  general  incidents  connecting  him  with  Clark  College. 
But  I  have  laid  no  stress  on  such  facts  and  confined  the  interest  to 
those  little  private  incidents  in  his  life  that  could  not  be  obtained 
casually  and  many  of  them  impossible  without  an  elaborate  detec¬ 
tive  system  which  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  even  if  she  were  disposed,  which 
she  is  not,  could  not  conduct  with  manifold  times  the  means  at  her 
disposal.  Readers  need  have  no  scruples  on  this  point.  But  read¬ 
ers  must  remember  that  at  the  sittings  of  the  daughter  there  was  no 
opportunity  to  know  who  was  present  or  that  the  same  personality 
was  wanted  to  communicate  that  came  to  me.  You  may  very  well 
assume  a  spontaneously  worked  up  product  for  me,  though  there 
was  no  reason  for  doing  so,  as  I  had  no  personal  relations  with  the 
man.  In  any  case  you  can  only  speak  of  subconscious  work  as 
conscious  fraud  will  be  given  no  consideration  by  me. 

The  facts  in  many  instances  are  especially  good  and  absolutely 
all  of  them  but  his  name  and  connection  with  Clark  College  were 
unknown  to  me,  so  that  the  toleration  of  anything  supernormal  in 
them  excludes  telepathy  from  my  mind  beyond  question.  I  need 
not  explain  them  here,  however,  as  I  am  only  concerned  with  the 
facts  as  they  came  from  a  man  of  national  character. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


EXPLANATIONS  AND  OBJECTIONS 

IT  has  been  clear  in  my  treatment  of  the  data  that  my  own 
tendency  is  towards  a  spiritistic  explanation.  Indeed  my  atti¬ 
tude  on  the  subject  is  so  well  known  that  I  have  not  tried  to 
conceal  my  bias  when  discussing  explanations,  nor  to  practice  any 
obsequiousness  when  weighing  evidence.  I  have  been  expounding 
a  theory  which  has  long  appeared  to  me  to  be  proved,  and  I  have 
been  trying  to  present  the  facts  in  a  way  to  increase  the  difficulties 
of  skepticism  in  rejecting  that  conclusion.  It  has  been  apparent 
throughout  that  I  accept  the  spiritistic  explanation  of  the  facts, 
though  I  have  endeavored  to  do  justice  to  opposing  views.  But  I 
have  tried  also  to  show  that  there  are  facts  which  the  opposing 
theories  cannot  explain,  and  from  these  facts  the  argument  gains 
its  force. 

But  while  I  have  presented  the  spiritistic  hypothesis  as  the  only 
one  that  even  approximates  an  explanation,  readers  must  not  mis¬ 
understand  the  conditions  under  which  I  maintain  such  a  doctrine. 
The  prejudices  and  the  ignorance  of  a  century  are  organized  against 
even  the  use  of  the  term;  and  all  the  illusions  which  that  century 
of  progress  in  physical  science  has  produced,  together  with  the 
barriers  of  all  sorts  of  orthodoxy,  scientific,  literary,  and  esthetic, 
are  resorted  to  in  defence  of  a  hostile  attitude  toward  the  doctrine, 
though  religions  and  philosophies  pretend  to  believe  the  same  thing 
under  another  name.  Whoever  accepts  the  belief  in  spirits  from 
scientific  evidence  has  to  face  this  situation;  and,  if  he  has  any  re¬ 
gard  for  the  good  will  of  his  neighbors,  he  will  let  the  subject  en¬ 
tirely  alone.  But  cowardice  is  no  safe  refuge  from  facts,  and  there 
are  people  who  know  that  truth  and  virtue  are  not  under  the  do¬ 
minion  of  fashion  and  good  taste.  They  insist  on  ignoring  mere 
orthodoxies  as  such  and  on  penetrating  the  disguises  of  ignorance 
and  custom  to  explore  the  despised  territories  of  hard  facts.  They 


EXPLANATIONS  AND  OBJECTIONS 


327 

accept  the  leadership  of  truth  whithersoever  it  takes  them.  Those 
who  remain  behind  must  accept  the  penalty ;  but  those  who  go  for¬ 
ward  must  meet  hosts  of  illusions  about  their  beliefs.  No  one  has 
more  trouble  in  this  respect  than  the  believer  in  spirits,  though  his 
enemies  want  to  believe  in  everything  that  the  doctrine  means ! 

Most  antagonists  to  spiritistic  hypotheses,  whether  religious  or 
skeptical,  have  much  the  same  conception  of  what  a  spirit  is.  The 
only  difference  between  the  two  classes  is  that  one  believes  and  the 
other  does  not  believe  in  the  reality  of  spirit  so  conceived.  It  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  show  that  both  are  under  a  delusion.  The  habits  of  thought 
prevailing  in  unscientific  minds  tend  to  make  them  trust  in  their 
imaginations,  or  in  the  interpretation  of  terms  according  to  sense- 
experience.  Hence  most  minds  imagine  spirits  to  be  visible,  tan¬ 
gible,  audible  beings,  represented  by  apparitions,  “  materializations,” 
ghosts  that  haunt  houses  and  provoke  unpleasant  disturbances,  or 
by  angels  with  wings  and  flowing  robes,  with  all  the  trappings  of 
their  physical  state,  including  houses,  occupations,  clothes,  and  all 
the  accessories  of  economic  life. 

This  conception  is  so  incredible  from  the  point  of  view  of  tra¬ 
ditional  philosophy,  with  its  complete  dualism  or  antithesis  between 
matter  and  spirit,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  excites  ridicule.  I 
shall  say  frankly,  however,  that  there  may  be  more  truth  in  it  than 
I  know.  I  do  not  know  enough  to  deny  the  doctrine  that  the  spir¬ 
itual  world  is  but  the  invisible  side  of  the  visible  universe.  For 
aught  that  I  know  it  may  be  a  complete  ethereal  replica  of  the  physi¬ 
cal  universe,  or  if  “  ethereal  ”  is  too  suggestive  of  something  else 
than  matter,  for  aught  that  I  know,  the  spiritual  world  may  be 
merely  a  sublimated  condition  of  matter,  effected  by  changes  like 
those  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  chemistry.  We  know  that 
matter  can  be  altered  from  the  solid  to  the  liquid  and  from  the 
liquid  to  the  gaseous  condition,  and  that  as  a  gas  it  may  become 
wholly  non-sensible  and  lose  properties  which  it  had  in  solid  form. 
For  aught  that  I  know  spirit  may  be  some  such  sublimated  condition 
of  matter.  But  I  do  not  contend  for  such  a  doctrine.  I  am  indif¬ 
ferent  to  it  at  present.  It  is  no  part  of  our  present  problem  to 
determine  what  spirit  is,  but  that  it  is.  All  that  we  mean  is  that 
something  survives  death,  whether  we  finally  decide  to  call  it  mat- 


328  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ter,  or  spirit.  The  primary  question  is  whether  personal  conscious¬ 
ness  survives  the  body.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned  here,  spirit  may 
be  all  that  spiritualists  claim,  though  it  is  hard  to  determine  exactly 
what  they  claim.  But  when  I  defend  the  spiritistic  hypothesis 
here,  I  am  neither  accepting  popular  spiritualism  nor  holding  in  re¬ 
serve  any  system  of  metaphysics,  material  or  spiritual. 

What  I  contend  for  is,  that  there  is  satisfactory  evidence  for  the 
survival  of  personal  consciousness.  But  there  is  a  tendency  in  aca¬ 
demic  circles  to  insist  that  we  must  have  a  theory  of  philosophy 
to  discuss,  some  metaphysical  explanation  of  facts,  before  we  admit 
the  facts  themselves.  This  is  a  delusion  of  the  first  order.  We  can 
never  tell  how  anything  happens  until  we  prove  that  it  does  happen. 
We  are  not  required  to  have  explanations  before  we  are  assured  of 
the  facts.  Indeed,  science  may  not  seek  to  go  beyond  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  facts  and  may  suspend  explanations  altogether.  It  must  at 
least  subordinate  theoretical  considerations  to  the  proof  of  its  facts. 

The  only  meaning  that  I  give  to  the  term  “  spirit  ”  in  the  present 
stage  of  the  work  is,  a  stream  of  consciousness  that  may,  in  some 
way,  subsist  after  the  body  has  dissolved.  How  it  subsists  may  be 
taken  up  in  the  later  investigation  of  the  subject,  but  it  is  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  our  problem  that  we  shall  define  the  nature  of  “  spirit  ”  in 
terms  of  its  relation  to  matter.  All  that  I  contend  for  is,  that  cer¬ 
tain  facts  are  evidence  of  this  continuity,  not  evidence  of  what  it  is. 
In  other  words  our  scientific  problem  is  evidential  rather  than  ex¬ 
planatory.  When  we  have  assured  ourselves  that  personality  sur¬ 
vives,  we  may  then  take  up  the  determination  of  the  conditions 
under  which  it  survives.  At  present  we  have  only  facts  that  indi¬ 
cate  something  supernormal,  from  which  we  infer  the  continuity 
of  personal  identity,  though  we  do  not  know  the  conditions  of  that 
continued  existence. 

This  ought  to  make  clear  all  that  I  mean  by  spirit.  Indeed  I 
have  emphasized  the  conception  in  the  introductory  chapter  and  in 
the  definition  of  the  problem,  so  that  it  is  repeated  here  only  for  the 
sake  of  laying  stress  on  the  limitations  of  our  knowledge. 

The  evidence  I  regard  as  scientifically  proving  survival,  though 
it  does  not  prove  all  that  people  believe  under  that  name.  There  is 
no  other  rational  explanation  of  the  facts  than  the  hypothesis  of 


EXPLANATIONS  AND  OBJECTIONS 


329 


survival ;  and  the  cumulative  evidence  is  so  strong  that  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  proof  is  even  equal  or  superior  to  that  for 
evolution.  As  a  theory  of  the  gradual  as  opposed  to  the  catastro¬ 
phic  genesis  of  species,  evolution  is  undoubtedly  proved  in  every 
sense  of  the  word  scientific  proof.  To  the  same  extent  I  think 
survival  or  the  existence  of  spirit  has  been  proved  by  the  work  of 
psychic  research.  The  facts  given  in  this  volume  are  not  sufficient 
evidence,  and  they  are  not  given  with  the  assumption  that  they  con¬ 
stitute  adequate  proof.  They  are  merely  good  illustrations  of  the 
nature  of  the  evidence  for  supernormal  knowledge  of  some  kind. 
Indeed,  the  best  evidence  for  survival  can  hardly  be  quoted,  in  many 
cases,  without  giving  the  entire  record,  with  proper  explanations  of 
its  psychological  nature  and  its  accuracy.  The  present  volume  is 
designed  only  to  awaken  interest;  readers  who  are  still  doubtful 
must  take  the  time  and  pains  critically  to  study  more  elaborate  re¬ 
ports.  They  will  find  it  difficult  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  I 
have  drawn. 

They  still  may  not  feel  satisfied,  if  they  are  under  the  delusion 
that  their  preconceived  ideas  of  spirit  and  its  behavior  must  be  sub¬ 
stantiated  before  they  believe  in  its  existence.  But  they  are  not 
entitled  to  draw  from  the  facts  any  conclusion  except  what  they 
indicate;  and  most,  if  not  all,  evidence  for  personal  identity  does 
not  hold  any  hint  of  what  the  life  is  like  or  what  spirits  are  like. 
Unless  readers  master  that  simple  fact  they  are  not  qualified  to 
study  the  subject.  We  are  not  upholding  any  preconceptions  of 
spirit.  We  have  to  assume  the  materialistic  point  of  view  that 
there  is  no  such  thing,  and  then  see  whether  our  supernormal  facts 
can  be  explained  as  functions  of  the  brain.  If  we  cannot  give  a 
materialistic  explanation,  which  implies  annihilation,  we  have  to 
suppose  that  the  phenomena  imply  the  extension  or  continuance 
of  the  particular  consciousness  whose  identity  is  established  by  the 
messages.  All  further  questions  as  to  the  mode  of  existence  must 
be  determined  by  other  methods  and  other  evidence. 

The  phenomena  do  not  establish  survival  or  the  existence  of  spirit 
because  they  are  “  wonderful.”  The  popular  idea  is  that,  if  a  phe¬ 
nomenon  is  “  wonderful  ”  or  inexplicable  by  ordinary  causes,  it 
must  be  evidence  for  spirits.  It  is  not  mystery  that  establishes  the 


330  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

conclusion,  but  the  perfect  intelligibility  of  the  facts.  Supernormal 
experiences  which  do  not  indicate  the  continued  personal  identity 
of  the  dead  might  be  explained  by  hypotheses  as  indefinite  as  the 
facts  themselves;  but  when  the  circumstances  are  exactly  what  we 
should  expect  if  a  given  person  were  communicating  with  us,  the 
conclusion  can  hardly  be  escaped.  The  only  circumstance  that  will 
give  rise  to  resistance  is  prejudice  based  on  the  dogmatism  of  science 
about  “  matter  ”  and  on  the  lack  of  respectability  among  the  advo¬ 
cates  of  spiritistic  theories.  These  are,  in  reality,  more  powerful 
influences  than  any  logic  or  proved  facts.  But  the  phenomena 
have  so  accumulated  that  it  will  soon  be  the  mark  of  extreme  igno¬ 
rance  to  reject  the  conclusion. 

When  we  consider  objections  to  the  spiritistic  hypothesis,  I  think 
we  may  say  to-day  that  none  are  valid.  Twenty-five  years  ago  we 
might  have  entertained  objections,  but  the  work  done  in  the  interim 
has  effectively  removed  them.  While  chance  coincidence  and  guess¬ 
ing  may  account  for  many  occurrences  advanced  as  evidence  for 
the  supernormal,  they  have  long  been  thrown  out  of  court  as  ex¬ 
planations  of  vast  masses  of  phenomena,  and  those  quoted  in  this 
volume  as  evidence  of  the  supernormal  exhibit  their  own  exemption 
from  such  suspicion.  Secondary  personality  fares  no  better. 
While  it  limits  evidence  and  excludes  spirits  as  the  explanation  of 
certain  types  of  facts,  the  contents  of  its  phenomena  can  be  traced 
to  normal  experience,  while  genuinely  supernormal  knowledge  can 
be  explained  only  by  a  source  external  to  the  subconscious. 

Telepathy  is  not  a  legitimate  rival.  I  shall  not  discuss  it  here, 
after  the  exhaustive  discussion  given  it  in  earlier  chapters.  I  men¬ 
tion  it  as  a  whilom  objection  no  longer  cogent  nor  relevant.  It 
has  been  eliminated  for  all  who  know  anything  about  the  facts  and 
is  pressed  only  by  those  who  are  too  bewildered  by  the  phenomena 
to  make  up  their  minds.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  telepathy, 
though  probably  a  fact  and  a  very  limited  fact,  no  longer  plays  its 
former  role  in  the  controversy,  and  represents  an  agency  so  little 
known  that  the  burden  of  proof  now  rests  on  the  believer  in  it  rather 
than  on  the  believer  in  spirits.  The  more  rational  theory  must 
have  the  preference  and  telepathy  has  no  rationality  to  commend  it. 

But  if  there  are  no  longer  any  real  objections  to  the  spiritistic 


EXPLANATIONS  AND  OBJECTIONS  331 

hypothesis,  there  are  certain  difficulties  or  perplexities  for  all  of  us. 
They  are  not  objections  to,  but  puzzles  in  the  theory.  They  must 
be  recognized  despite  the  fact  that  the  hypothesis  has  to  be  accepted. 
They  may  be  summarized  under  two  heads :  ( i )  The  mistakes  and 
confusions  in  the  communications  and  (2)  the  contradictions  in  the 
statements  about  the  nature  of  the  life  after  death.  This  latter 
question  should  be  taken  up  in  a  later  discussion  of  the  nature  of 
the  spiritual  life.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  no  amount  of  contradiction 
in  statement  can  be  construed  as  an  objection  to  a  spiritistic  theory. 
Spirits,  like  living  people,  may  contradict  each  other,  but  the  con¬ 
tradiction  is  no  evidence  against  their  existence. 

The  confusions  and  mistakes  in  the  communications,  though  they 
no  more  than  contradictory  statements  militate  against  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirits,  do  require  explication  if  the  phenomena  are  to  be 
made  intelligible.  The  difficulties  which  these  mistakes  involve  are 
based  solely  on  the  assumption  that,  if  spirits  can  communicate  as 
they  often  appear  to  do,  they  ought  not  to  make  manifest  errors 
in  statement.  This  assumption,  however,  is  wholly  unwarranted 
and  is  founded  on  a  superficial  interpretation  of  the  facts.  The 
analogies  of  normal  intercourse  offer  no  standard  for  judging  these 
phenomena.  Careful  students  will  detect  the  existence  of  condi¬ 
tions  for  communication  between  the  spiritual  and  the  physical 
worlds,  very  different  from  the  conditions  existing  between  living 
people.  These  conditions  are  so  complex  that  the  slightest  knowl¬ 
edge  of  them  will  render  intelligible  the  fragmentary  nature  of  the 
messages  and  the  mistakes  and  confusion.  Indeed  the  wonder  is 
that  any  communication  whatever  is  possible. 

I  If  we  know  the  conditions  under  which  messages  come,  we  can¬ 
not  wonder  at  the  confusions  and  mistakes.  There  is  first  the 
conscious  mind  of  the  psychic,  whether  normal  or  in  a  trance.  This 
mind  has  to  report  the  messages  and  must  color  them  in  the  same 
way  that  any  second  person  would  color  a  message  sent  to  a  friend. 
Then  there  is  the  subconscious  of  the  medium,  which  will  also 
modify  messages,  with  greater  liability  to  confusion  and  mistake 
than  exists  in  the  normal  consciousness.  Add  to  this  again  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  control’s  mind.  All  messages  either  come  through 
the  control’s  mind  or  are  affected  by  it,  in  addition  to  the  modifica- 


332  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

tions  which  communications  must  undergo  in  the  psychic’s  mind. 
An  additional  source  of  confusion  is  the  fact  that  many  messages 
are  involuntary;  that  is,  unintentional  on  the  part  of  the  communi¬ 
cator.  There  is  also  interfusion  of  the  communicator’s  thoughts 
with  those  of  others  near  by  as  well  as  with  those  of  the  medium 
and  the  control.  All  these  are  still  further  complicated  by  the  picto- 
graphic  process,  which  represents  the  communicator’s  thoughts  to 
the  control  and  the  psychic  in  a  panorama  of  mental  imagery, 
subject  to  interpretation  by  either  or  both.  If  the  pictures  are  sym¬ 
bolic  they  may  represent  in  the  mind  of  the  communicator  an  asso¬ 
ciation  of  ideas  which  are  not  connected  in  the  mind  of  the  living 
receiver  or  medium.  Imagine  what  different  accounts  two  persons 
would  give  of  an  ordinary  panorama  or  procession!  The  psychic 
may  hit  upon  incidents  in  the  series  of  pictures,  not  intended  by  the 
communicator,  and  yet  quite  as  good  evidence,  if  verifiable,  as  any 
intentional  picture.  But  the  whole  complex  phantasmagoria  ex¬ 
hibits  incalculable  opportunities  for  mistake. 

Under  such  complex  conditions  mistakes  and  confusions  enough 
are  sure  to  occur.  So  far  from  expecting  messages  to  be  simple 
and  clear,  the  intelligent  man,  when  he  knows  such  conditions  to 
exist,  will  wonder  that  any  intelligible  communications  at  all  should 
come.  But  mistakes  thus  made  do  not  invalidate  the  spiritistic  in¬ 
terpretation ;  and,  when  the  mistakes  are  either  spontaneously  cor¬ 
rected  or  can  be  naturally  explained  they  constitute  evidence  for 
the  theory  rather  than  against  it. 

The  main  difficulty  raised  is  totally  irrelevant.  I  refer  to  the 
trivialities  of  the  facts  advanced  in  proof  of  personal  identity  and 
the  general  vulgarity  of  an  average  spiritualistic  performance.  The 
offence  taken  at  these  is  merely  esthetic,  not  scientific,  and  hence  is 
of  no  importance  in  a  scientific  investigation  of  the  subject. 


PART  IV 


MISCELLANEOUS  QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM 

THFC  alleged  physical  phenomena  of  spiritualism  consist  of 
several  types  of  real  or  apparent  exception  to  the  ordinary 
laws  of  matter.  One  of  the  most  striking  is  telekinesis, 
the  alleged  movement  of  physical  objects  without  visible  normal 
contact,  and  without  the  intervention  of  any  physical  medium  or 
agent.  Raps,  or  the  production  of  sounds  without  contact,  is  a 
second  type.  Levitation  is  another,  but  this  is  only  a  form  of 
telekinesis.  The  production  of  lights  is  another.  Alteration  of 
weight  by  supernormal  means  is  still  another  but  infrequent  type. 
Materialization  is  another  type;  but  the  term  is  so  confusing  that 
the  alleged  phenomena  require  separate  treatment. 

Stories  of  such  events  have  been  told  from  time  immemorial  and 
are  plentiful,  it  seems,  among  all  races.  Familiarity  with  records 
not  often  mentioned  by  historians  shows  that  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  there  was  as  much  of  this  sort  of  narrative  as  in  modem 
times,  awakening  the  same  interest,  though  the  resistance  to  belief 
was  less  obstinate  then  than  now,  because  minds  were  not  so  satu¬ 
rated  with  the  idea  of  fixed  laws  of  nature  as  they  are  to-day.  In 
modern  times  the  interest  broke  out  anew  with  the  work  of  the  Fox 
sisters.  The  missionary  zeal  of  their  movement  centered  attention 
on  them  and  their  phenomena ;  their  spectacular  career  also  helped 
greatly  to  emphasize  the  impression.  But  the  phenomena  were  no 
different  in  kind  from  those  known  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans  and 
to  every  race  before  and  since  their  time.  All  this  I  have  briefly 
touched  upon  in  an  earlier  chapter.  We  are  at  present  interested 
not  in  the  history  of  such  phenomena,  but  in  their  relation  to  the 
problem  of  psychic  research. 

The  extravagant  interest  in  physical  phenomena  supposedly 
caused  by  spirits  or  some  unknown  force,  would  be  strange  were  it 
not  the  natural  heir  to  the  traditional  interest  in  miracles.  The 

335 


336  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

scientific  man  cannot  see  why  spiritualists  attach  so  much  value  to 
physical  phenomena  as  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits.  But 
the  point  of  view  is  not  difficult  to  understand.  To  the  ordinary 
man  all  mental  phenomena  are  equally  mysterious,  and  he  is  slow 
to  realize  the  exceptional  character  of  any  mental  fact.  Since  all 
phases  of  mental  life  are  inexplicable,  telepathy  or  clairvoyance  is 
no  more  to  be  wondered  at  than  a  funny  dream.  But  these  minds 
can  easily  perceive  that  certain  physical  phenomena  are  exceptions 
to  their  experience.  They  are  familiar  with  the  general  laws  of 
motion,  especially  with  the  law  of  contact;  and,  as  they  regard  as 
a  miracle  anything  that  represents  a  violation  of  the  law  of  contact 
as  the  cause  of  motion,  they  easily  refer  supernormal  physical  phe¬ 
nomena  to  spirits  as  a  cause.  This  is  the  natural  tendency  of  a 
mind  brought  up  to  believe  in  miracles.  In  the  psychological  field, 
telepathy  and  other  instances  of  the  supernormal  are  not  to  be  spe¬ 
cially  wondered  at,  as  they  are  no  more  exceptional  than  other 
idiosyncrasies  of  mind.  But  it  is  otherwise  with  physical  phe¬ 
nomena.  The  rising  of  a  table  without  contact  at  once  appears 
inexplicable  by  any  ordinary  laws  of  experience.  Common  minds 
can  see  the  unusual  character  of  such  phenomena,  and,  being  accus¬ 
tomed  to  find  in  Christian  doctrine  physical  miracles  cited  as  proof 
of  divinity,  they  easily  resort  to  the  spiritualistic  interpretation  of 
levitation.  They  are  not  often  nice  in  their  application  of  explana¬ 
tions,  and  make  anything  mysterious  a  signal  for  the  appeal  to 
spirits. 

But  they  reckon  ill  with  the  problems  of  evidence.  Levitation, 
raps,  lights,  and  other  physical  phenomena  are  no  more  evidence  for 
the  existence  of  spirits  than  is  the  fall  of  a  tree.  The  movement 
of  a  physical  object  through  space  without  contact  is  in  no  way 
evidence  for  the  existence  and  action  of  spirits.  It  may  be  accom¬ 
panied  by  such  evidence,  but  it  is  not  itself  this  evidence.  Proof  of 
the  existence  of  spirits  requires  not  the  mere  occurrence  of  inex¬ 
plicable  phenomena,  physical  or  mental,  but  facts  of  a  supernormal 
character,  evincing  the  continued  personal  identity  of  the  dead. 
The  phenomena  must  be  explicable  only  as  the  acts  of  intelligence, 
indicating  the  presence  and  action  of  discarnate  beings,  as  displayed 
in  the  transmission  of  messages  or  in  the  production  of  phenomena 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  337 

that  show  purpose.  This  indication  of  purposive  intelligence,  not 
the  mechanical  movement  of  objects,  constitutes  the  evidence. 
There  is  no  scientific  excuse  for  the  spiritualistic  contention  that 
physical  phenomena  prove  the  existence  of  spirits.  Unaccompanied 
by  mental  phenomena  they  are  useless.  For  telekinetic  phenomena 
are  among  the  most  common  in  nature  —  magnetism,  wireless  teleg¬ 
raphy,  and  gravitation  are  illustrations.  Intelligent  scientific  men 
will  admit  the  possibility  of  telekinesis;  it  is  merely  a  matter  of  evi¬ 
dence,  not  of  a  priori  limitations  to  nature.  But  they  can  still 
maintain  that,  while  the  occurrence  of  supernormal  physical  phe¬ 
nomena  may  be  entirely  possible  or  even  proved,  these  alone  are 
not  evidence  for  the  existence  of  spirits. 

The  case  might  be  very  different  if  there  appeared  also  mental 
phenomena,  especially  such  as  are  unmistakably  supernormal  and 
reflect  the  personality  of  the  dead.  If  the  levitation  of  a  table,  for 
instance,  were  accompanied  by  mental  phenomena  involving  the 
personal  action  of  some  one  dead,  it  would  have  some  interest  for 
the  skeptic  asked  to  believe  in  the  power  of  spirits  to  cause  motion 
in  physical  objects.  But  if  it  occurred  without  indication  of  intel¬ 
ligence,  incarnate  or  discarnate,  it  would  be  only  a  curious  event. 

It  is  in  reality  the  ensemble  of  phenomena,  the  complex  situation, 
that  has  impressed  the  spiritualist.  This  situation  usually  includes 
the  presence  of  mental  as  well  as  physical  phenomena:  this  associ¬ 
ation,  not  the  physical  phenomenon,  justifies  the  suspicion  of  spir¬ 
itistic  agency.  Unfortunately  most  people  appeal  to  the  physical 
“  miracle  ”  instead  of  to  the  mental  phenomena,  which  appear  to  be 
less  miraculous.  Though,  taken  alone,  physical  phenomena  have 
no  evidential  import  whatever,  we  have  to  discuss  them,  partly  be¬ 
cause  tradition  has  associated  them  with  spiritism,  and  partly  be¬ 
cause  mental  phenomena  of  much  significance  have  often  occurred 
in  connection  with  alleged  physical  events  of  an  inexplicable  nature. 

If  we  should  ever  succeed  in  proving  the  existence  of  genuinely 
supernormal  physical  occurrences,  definitely  connected  with  super¬ 
normal  mental  occurrences,  and  so  have  reason  to  assign  to  both  of 
them  the  same  cause,  we  should  have  a  result  of  very  great  cosmic 
interest.  To  find  that  extra-organic  intelligence  can  move  matter 
without  the  intervention  of  normal  human  agency,  even  though 


338  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

mediumship  be  usually  associated  with  the  movement,  would  be  to 
raise  the  question  of  the  relation  of  intelligence  to  all  mechanical 
action.  If  we  once  establish  the  fact  of  telekinesis  by  intelligence 
alone  —  that  is,  the  movement  of  inorganic  objects  by  discarnate 
agencies,  without  contact,  we  open  the  way  for  considering  the 
question  of  the  priority  of  intelligence  to  all  mechanical  movement 
in  the  universe.  The  materialistic  theory  has  so  long  accustomed 
us  to  think  of  physical  movement  as  mechanically  caused,  and  not  as 
possibly  caused  directly  b}'-  intelligence  that  we  are  not  prepared 
to  admit  any  but  mechanical  causes  in  the  physical  universe.  This 
has  been  the  tendency  of  philosophic  thought  from  the  time  of  the 
earliest  thinkers  of  Greece.  They  sought  to  remove  intelligence 
from  cosmic  action ;  and,  though  they  sometimes  admitted  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirit  or  spirits,  they  relegated  them  to  the  intermundia, 
where  they  could  exercise  no  influence  on  the  course  of  physical 
events.  But  once  let  it  be  proved  that  the  discarnate  can  be  efficient 
to  produce  motion  in  inorganic  objects,  materialism  will  be  forever 
dislodged  from  its  stronghold.  Consciousness  will  have  been 
proved  capable,  in  an  extra-organic  existence,  of  producing  more  or 
less  direct  effects  on  inorganic  matter ;  and  no  one  will  be  able  to 
assign  to  this  ability  any  limits  save  such  as  experience  may  define. 

This  larger  aspect  of  the  question  is  the  phase  of  real  interest  in 
the  problem  of  telekinesis  as  associated  with  intelligence.  But  the 
prospect  of  accomplishing  results  that  will  illustrate  or  prove  this 
larger  view  is  very  remote.  We  have  hardly  started  on  the  way. 
We  are  still  too  doubtful  of  the  occurrence  of  the  phenomena  in 
any  form  to  begin  drawing  inferences  from  them.  However,  in 
the  mental  field,  facts  to  prove  the  existence  of  spirits  are  multi¬ 
plying  ;  and,  their  existence  once  conceded,  there  will  be  more  proba¬ 
bility  of  our  discovering  that  they  are  influential  in  determining 
events.  We  may  therefore  soon  be  on  the  road  to  solving  the 
larger  questions  of  telekinesis. 

The  historical  records  in  support  of  supernormal  physical  phe¬ 
nomena  are  not  very  impressive,  unless  we  except  those  of  Robert 
Hare  and  Sir  William  Crookes.  Robert  Hare  was  professor  of 
chemistry  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  His  volume  on  his 
experiments  and  inquiries  has  been  quoted  by  spiritualists  as  more 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  339 

or  less  conclusive  in  their  favor.  But  his  mere  academic  authority 
is  all  that  spiritualists  have  emphasized ;  they  have  not  been  able  to 
reproduce  his  alleged  results.  Moreover,  examination  of  his  work 
reveals  the  justice  of  Mr.  Podmore’s  criticising  it,  at  least  of  his 
accusation  of  defectiveness  in  the  account  of  experiments  and  in¬ 
quiries.  Mr.  Podmore,  however,  was  so  obsessed  with  his  belief 
in  fraud  that  he  could  recognize  neither  its  limits  nor  the  significance 
of  hysteria  and  other  abnormal  mental  states  in  honest  subjects.  No 
doubt  Professor  Hare  erred  in  the  opposite  direction,  though  this 
error  may  be  more  apparent  in  his  writings  than  in  his  actual  inves¬ 
tigations.  Unfortunately  the  latter  are  so  imperfectly  described 
that  the  critic  is  free  to  make  all  sorts  of  accusations  that  cannot 
be  refuted  if  false,  nor  proved  if  true.  Some  of  the  apparatus  he 
invented  was  good,  but  we  know  far  too  little  about  the  exact  con¬ 
ditions  of  his  experiments.  He  merely  states  in  a  description  of 
his  apparatus  that  he  succeeded  in  registering  a  pressure  of  eighteen 
pounds  under  conditions,  as  he  thought,  that  do  not  permit  of  nor¬ 
mal  explanation;  but  he  does  not  describe  insufficient  detail  the 
manner  of  experimenting.  Like  all  investigators  of  that  period  — 
1850  to  i860  —  as  soon  as  he  was  convinced  of  his  theory  he  ac¬ 
cepted  all  sorts  of  phenomena  and  mediumistic  statements  without 
any  criticism.  He  went  elaborately  into  the  revelations  of  another 
life,  as  if  the  mere  fact  that  these  revelations  came  from  spirits 
attested  their  credibility.  But  he  shows  us  no  reason  to  be  assured 
that  many  of  the  statements  had  any  transcendental  source  what¬ 
ever.  We  may  urge  in  his  defence  that  at  that  time  nothing  was 
known  about  the  subconscious.  The  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world,  after  being  personally  convinced  of  the  honesty  and  veracity 
of  the  medium,  was  to  take  the  communications  at  their  face  value, 
even  though  they  might  be  unprovable  and  perplexing.  He  seems 
not  to  have  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  careful  sifting  and  criticism 
of  the  evidence  for  spirit  existence,  much  less  to  have  established 
any  criteria  for  determining  the  validity  of  statements  about  the 
spiritual  world.  He  cannot  be  quoted  by  any  scientific  or  intelligent 
man  in  support  either  of  the  existence  of  spirits  or,  if  they  exist,  of 
the  truth  of  their  communications. 

One  circumstance,  however,  which  Mr.  Podmore  quotes  with  an 


340  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

apparent  sneer,  is  not  indefensible.  Professor  Hare  invented  an 
apparatus  for  spelling  out  messages,  in  which  the  dial  and  hand 
were  so  concealed  that  the  observer,  but  not  the  medium,  could  see 
where  the  index  pointed.  He  records  that  results  were  more  diffi¬ 
cult  to  obtain,  and  failures  more  frequent  under  these  conditions. 
When  the  spirits  were  taken  to  task  for  these  failures,  they  replied 
that,  since  the  medium  could  not  see  the  face  of  the  dial  and  the 
index,  the  spirits  had  to  see  them  through  Dr.  Hare’s  eyes.  This 
reply  Mr.  Podmore  evidently  thought  a  preposterous  subterfuge. 
But  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  spirits  must  see  what  they  are 
doing.  It  may  be  that  they  cannot  always  or  easily  see  physical 
objects  without  the  use  of  sensory  organs. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  have  some  evidence  that  this  claim  is 
more  or  less  justified.  I  have  not  proved  it  even  to  my  own  satis¬ 
faction.  I  have  been  too  busy  trying  to  get  more  important  ques¬ 
tions  solved  and  to  secure  evidence  of  survival  rather  than  evidence 
of  the  character  of  intercommunication  between  the  physical  and 
spiritual  worlds.  But  I  have  noted  some  important  facts  bearing 
on  this  very  question.  Their  significance  is  determined  entirely 
by  the  fact  that  supernormal  information  justifying  the  spiritistic 
hypothesis  was  obtained  in  connection  with  the  phenomena  which  I 
shall  here  detail. 

(i)  At  one  time  in  my  experiments  with  Mrs.  Chenoweth  I  used 
a  head-rest  to  support  her  head  when  she  was  in  the  trance.  Her 
eyes  were  buried  in  the  pillow.  Once,  when  the  automatic  writing 
was  going  on  and  Dr.  Hodgson  was  purporting  to  communicate, 
she  turned  her  face  over  so  that  her  eyes,  though  closed,  were  ex¬ 
posed  to  the  light.  The  communicator,  apparently  not  knowing 
what  had  happened,  remarked  that  he  could  almost  see.  Supposedly 
the  light  penetrating  the  eye-lids  had  affected  the  communicator  so 
that  he  could  use  the  sense-organs.  This  incident,  of  course,  is  not 
conclusive,  as  we  may  explain  it  by  supposing  that  the  light  passing 
through  the  eye-lids  was  appreciated  by  the  subconscious  imper¬ 
sonating  the  communicator.  I  do  not  dispute  that  explanation;  it 
is  probably  correct  enough.  But  it  does  not  stand  in  the  way  of 
supposing  that  the  discarnate,  if  it  exists  and  is  capable  of  using 
the  nervous  organism  of  a  living  person  may  have  perceptions  as 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  341 

claimed.  At  any  rate,  the  incident  quoted  is  of  a  character  to  sup¬ 
port  that  claim,  if  it  were  otherwise  justified. 

(2)  I  have  often  noticed  that  one  of  the  controls  in  the  work  of 
Mrs.  Chenoweth,  Jennie  P.,  can  always  avoid  superposing  when 
communicating  for  herself;  but,  when  she  is  trying  to  get  messages 
from  others,  she  has  to  be  watched  for  this  mistake,  and  I  have  to 
regulate  the  sheet  of  paper  to  prevent  it.  All  the  while,  Mrs. 
Chenoweth  is  in  the  trance  and  her  eyes  are  not  only  closed,  but 
are  often  turned  away  from  the  paper.  Superposition  would  prob¬ 
ably  occur  if  any  normal  person  tried  to  write  at  the  same  time  that 
he  had  his  head  turned  away  in  order  to  listen  to  some  one  talking. 
If  communication  involves  the  visual  interpretation  of  symbols  used 
by  the  communicator  to  transmit  his  thoughts  or  messages  to  the 
control,  we  can  realize  how  Jennie  P.  has  to  act  under  the  circum¬ 
stances. 

(3)  More  directly  in  support  of  the  statement  recorded  by  Dr. 
Hare  is  the  following  fact.  Since  the  development  of  Mrs.  Cheno- 
weth’s  trance  into  what  we  may  call  either  a  deeper  state  or  a  fur¬ 
ther  dissociation  of  the  subconscious,  I  have  frequently  noticed  that 
I  must  keep  my  eyes  on  the  sheet  of  paper  to  prevent  superposition. 
If  I  turn  away  to  reach  a  new  pad  or  to  make  notes,  superposition  is 
sure  to  begin ;  I  may  prevent  it  by  keeping  my  eyes  on  the  paper, 
even  when  I  do  not  have  to  move  the  pad  in  order  to  prevent  the 
occurrence.  Apparently  my  own  visual  picture  of  the  paper  is 
immediately  transferred  to  the  control  and  he  or  she  can  regulate 
the  writing  accordingly. 

To  prove  this  contention  will  require  much  more  evidence  than 
I  have  adduced.  It  is  my  purpose  here  only  to  state  a  problem  and 
to  note  that  Dr.  Hare  has  recorded  a  statement  of  some  interest,  at 
which  we  need  not  sneer,  though  I  should  have  done  so  myself  if  I 
had  been  in  the  same  position  as  Mr.  Podmore  and  thousands  of 
others  during  the  earlier  stage  of  the  investigations.  With  the 
practice  of  restraint  and  tolerance,  we  may  some  day  find  a  satis¬ 
factory  explanation  of  apparent  absurdities  in  many  statements  that 
have  long  passed  as  genuine  communications  from  a  transcendental 
world,  even  though  we  do  not  accept  the  revelations  at  their  super¬ 
ficial  value. 


342  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  work  of  Sir  William  Crookes  is  more  impressive.  He  was 
not  himself  responsible  for  the  form  in  which  it  was  published  in 
this  country.  He  wrote  only  brief  accounts  in  the  “  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Science,”  in  which  he  was  conducting  a  controversy 
with  critics  of  his  paper,  read  before  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  these  brief  accounts  were  re¬ 
printed  in  this  country  without  his  revision  or  authority.  Enough, 
however,  was  included  to  give  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  part  of  his 
experiments;  those  connected  with  the  movement  of  physical  ob¬ 
jects  without  contact  and  with  increase  of  weight  have  never  been 
satisfactorily  explained.  William  Huggins,  a  scientist  of  no  mean 
repute,  witnessed  some  of  the  phenomena  and  attests  them;  but 
scientific  men  generally  refused  to  accept  the  challenge  to  investi¬ 
gate  with  him.  The  reception  of  his  report  led  Sir  William  Crookes 
to  abandon  the  subject,  though  he  has  maintained  the  convictions 
which  his  work  established,  and  reiterated  them  after  more  than 
thirty  years. 

Strange  to  say,  the  incidents  which  spiritualists  and  the  public 
love  to  quote  most  frequently,  almost  ignoring  his  best  experiments, 
are  those  connected  with  alleged  materialization.  These,  however, 
are  poorly  reported  and  their  import  depends  solely  on  the  authority 
of  Sir  William  Crookes.  While  that  must  have  weight,  we  should 
have  had  a  detailed  account  of  the  experiments  and  results. 

The  report  on  materialization  is  the  least  impressive  in  the  whole 
work ;  but  to  the  public  it  is  interesting  precisely  in  proportion  to  its 
incredibility.  If  emphasis  had  been  laid  on  the  experiments  with 
D.  D.  Home,  though  suspension  of  judgment  has  to  be  applied  to 
some  of  them,  the  work  would  have  received  a  more  respectful  hear¬ 
ing.  It  is  significant  in  this  connection  that  many  years  afterward. 
Sir  William  Crookes  in  his  presidential  address  before  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  confessed  to  the  wish  that  he  had  studied  the 
mental  phenomena  before  he  announced  his  conclusions.  If  he 
had  done  so,  he  might  have  found  the  clue  to  his  materialization 
phenomena. 

This  discussion  offers  the  opportunity  to  explain  the  confusion 
connected  with  this  term.  When  we  say  “  materialization,”  mean¬ 
ing  the  alleged  appearance  of  a  spirit,  the  scientific  man  understands 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  343 

us  to  assert  that  a  physical  body  has  been  created  apparently  out  of 
nothing,  or,  as  some  spiritualists  maintain,  out  of  the  surrounding 
matter.  In  either  case  the  hypothesis  is,  that  a  physical  body  is 
formed  without  any  apparent  source  for  the  substance  and  proper¬ 
ties  manifested.  This  conception  is  incredible.  We  have  no  prece¬ 
dent  in  scientific  work  for  the  sudden  and  apparently  miraculous 
production  of  organic  beings  and  their  disappearance  in  a  few  mo¬ 
ments  like  the  “  baseless  fabric  of  a  dream.”  The  spiritualist  may 
just  as  w’ell  admit  the  difficulties  and  not  try  to  explain  them  by 
suppositions  more  far-fetched  than  the  main  theory. 

But  I  have  observed  many  times  that  people  in  reporting  mate¬ 
rializations  do  not  mean  the  creation  of  physical  organisms.  They 
even  speak  of  apparitions  as  “  materializations  ” ;  this  usage  shows 
what  they  really  mean  by  the  term.  Apparitions  are  phantasms, 
not  physical  substance.  They  may  be  veridical,  and  prove  quite  as 
much  as  any  materialization  would  prove,  without  the  intellectual 
difficulties  attaching  to  the  materialization  theory.  If  they  are 
called  phantasms  or  apparitions,  though  the  description  may  be  in¬ 
complete,  it  expresses  a  proved  fact.  Whatever  other  elements  are 
present  can  then  be  the  subject  of  further  investigation.  We 
should  not  ask  the  mind,  especially  the  scientific  mind,  accustomed  to 
employ  its  terms  with  great  accuracy  and  clear  definition,  to  believe 
in  so  improbable  an  event  as  the  creation  of  matter  out  of  nothing, 
or  the  formation  of  inorganic  matter  into  organic  and  its  disintegra¬ 
tion,  independent  of  the  usual  process  of  dissolution.  I  have  known 
instances  of  apparitions  thus  appearing  in  the  presence  of  mediums. 
They  occurred  during  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Catherine  Paine  Sutton 
with  Mrs.  Piper.  They  occasionally  occur  with  considerable  vivid¬ 
ness  to  Mrs.  ChenowTth.  They  are  a  constant  phenomenon  with 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  when  the  pictographic  process  is  employed  for 
communication.  But  the  phenomena  are  either  mere  mental  pic¬ 
tures  or  veridical  phantasms.  The  simplest  course  is  to  treat  them 
as  apparitions,  acknowledging  the  possibility  both  of  collective  phan¬ 
tasms  and  of  synesthetic  apparitions.  These,  of  course,  are  also 
hard  to  accept,  but  they  conform  to  what  we  know  of  phantasms. 

When  Sir  William  Crookes  said  that  he  wished  that  he  had  in¬ 
vestigated  the  mental  phenomena  first,  he  admitted  the  possibility 


344  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

that  the  phenomena  of  Katie  King  might  possibly  be  brought  under 
that  classihcation,  and  if  so,  would  be  more  easily  credible.  But 
incredibility  apparently  attracts  the  average  spiritualist,  who,  in¬ 
stead  of  fixing  his  attention  on  the  best  attested  accounts  of  Sir 
William  Crookes,  concentrates  his  interest  on  the  least  probable 
of  the  phenomena.  \\T  may  well  admit  that  something  unusual 
happened,  without  accepting  the  first  explanation  that  comes  to 
hand.  We  have  a  right  to  pause  before  accepting  so  incredible  an 
occurrence  as  that  described,  especially  as  no  detailed  account  of  the 
facts  accompanies  the  statement  and  as  Sir  W^illiam  Crookes  has 
himself  publicly  stated  that  he  is  not  responsible  for  the  book  as 
published  in  this  country. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Sir  William  Crookes  has  recorded  the  facts 
in  full,  and  that  they  may  some  day  see  the  light.  MeanwhHe  we 
have  only  the  letters  to  the  “  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science.”  We 
can  describe  only  one  of  his  experiments  here,  and  even  that  cannot 
be  made  as  clear  as  the  printed  account,  because  the  complex  appa¬ 
ratus  employed  cannot  be  here  represented.  The  purpose  of  this 
experiment  was  to  get  evidence  of  the  existence  of  raps  and  of  their 
objective  nature,  whatever  their  source.  Raps  are  often  said  to 
occur  without  contact  of  the  hands  or  other  physical  object.  Sir 
William  Crookes  sought  to  demonstrate  that  they  do  occur  in  this 
manner  and  are  really  objective  physical  phenomena. 

The  apparatus  contained  an  elastic  membrane  on  which  was 
placed  a  small  piece  of  graphite,  which  would  be  thrown  upward 
by  the  slightest  jar  to  the  membrane.  The  psychic  was  brought 
into  the  room  without  having  the  nature  or  object  of  the  experi¬ 
ment  explained,  and  was  asked  to  place  her  hands  on  a  board,  that 
contact  with  the  elastic  membranes  might  be  prevented.  Sir  Wil¬ 
liam  Crookes  held  his  hands  on  those  of  the  medium,  in  order  to 
detect  any  conscious  or  unconscious  movement  of  her  hands.  Soon 
sharp,  percussive  raps  occurred,  and  the  piece  of  graphite  was  pro¬ 
jected  upward  from  the  membrane  about  one-fiftieth  of  an  inch. 
The  apparatus  contained  also  a  lever  so  arranged  that  its  point 
would  register  in  curves  the  amount  of  mechanical  energy  em¬ 
ployed. 

Perhaps  physicists  would  find  flaws  in  this  experiment,  and  we 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  345 

should  certainly  want  to  be  assured  that  tension  of  the  lady’s  hands 
under  those  of  Sir  William  Crookes  on  the  board  could  not  produce 
the  effect.  But  this  objection  could  not  be  urged  against  his  ex¬ 
periment  in  adding  to  the  weight  of  an  object,  which  we  cannot 
detail  here.  An  experiment  with  D.  D.  Home  and  an  accordion, 
even  Dr.  Hodgson  found  no  means  of  explaining  away.  The 
accordion  was  held  in  one  hand  inside  a  wire  basket,  so  that  neither 
the  hand  nor  foot  of  Home  could  touch  the  other  end  of  the  instru¬ 
ment,  which  moved  and  played  music.  There  were  other  experi¬ 
ments  equally  puzzling. 

But  I  do  not  cite  them  as  absolute  proof.  They  are  of  a  type 
to  challenge  attention  and  to  require  further  investigation.  The 
scientific  man  is  entirely  within  his  rights  in  demanding  that  they 
shall  be  repeated,  and  Sir  William  Crookes  himself  recognized  this 
need.  The  fundamental  condition  of  scientific  proof  is  not  merely 
a  crucial  experiment,  but  a  large  number  of  experiments,  conducted 
by  different  people  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Hence  we 
quote  Sir  William  Crookes’s  experiences,  not  as  final  proof,  but  as 
a  challenge  to  experiment  on  the  subject,  and  not  to  reject  phe¬ 
nomena  as  impossible  because  they  are  unusual  and  apparently  in¬ 
consistent  with  ordinary  experience.  Copernican  astronomy  was 
inconsistent  with  preceding  theories  and  with  ordinary  observation. 
The  motion  of  the  earth  round  the  sun  contradicts  the  most  natural 
inference  from  sense-perception.  Telekinesis,  especially  since  it 
has  analogues  in  magnetism,  wireless  telegraphy,  and  gravitation, 
should  not  be  regarded  as  a  priori  impossible.  At  any  rate  Sir 
William  Crookes  has  challenged  the  scientific  world ;  and,  as  similar 
phenomena  have  been  produced  since  his  experiments,  we  are  not 
in  a  position  to  ridicule  his  conclusions. 

Dr.  W.  J.  Crawford,  a  man  of  some  scientific  standing  and  a 
lecturer  in  mechanical  engineering  in  Queen’s  University  at  Bel¬ 
fast,  Ireland,  has  performed  a  more  recent  series  of  experiments  in 
levitation,  under  conditions  and  with  results  that  make  them  of 
unusual  interest.  The  description  of  his  work  has  been  published 
and  is  readily  accessible.  A  family  of  spiritualists  were  conduct¬ 
ing  experiments  in  the  levitation  of  a  table  and  in  communication 
with  the  dead  by  raps.  Dr.  Crawford  learned  of  their  efforts  and 


346  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

was  admitted  to  the  circle.  The  room  w^as  sufficiently  light  for  all 
persons  sitting  about  the  table  to  be  seen,  at  least  after  a  little  time 
when  the  eyes  had  become  accustomed  to  the  dimness.  The  sitters 
held  hands;  all  were  at  least  eighteen  inches  away  from  the  table. 
Without  any  contact,  the  table  rose  into  the  air  and  remained  poised 
there  for  some  time,  often  as  high  as  one  or  two  feet.  The  sus¬ 
picion  that  some  of  the  party,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  might 
have  raised  it  by  hands  or  feet  was  set  aside  by  the  following  facts, 
(i)  While  the  table  was  in  the  air.  Dr.  Crawford  could  walk  all 
round  it,  except  between  it  and  the  psychic.  (2)  He  observed  that 
1  she  was  not  touching  the  table.  Sir  William  Barrett,  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  and  was  professor  of  physics  in  the  Royal  College  of 
Science  in  Dublin,  reports  his  own  observations  on  one  occasion 
when  he  w'as  permitted  to  be  present.  His  statement  is  taken  from 
his  work  on  “  The  Threshold  of  the  Unseen  ” : 

“  I  was  permitted  to  have  an  evening  sitting  with  the  family,  Dr. 
Crawford  accompanying  me.  We  sat  outside  the  small  family 
circle ;  the  room  was  illuminated  with  a  bright  gas  flame  burning  in 
a  lantern  with  a  large  red  glass  window,  on  the  mantelpiece.  The 
room  was  small,  and,  as  our  eyes  got  accustomed  to  the  light,  we 
could  see  all  the  sitters  clearly.  They  sat  round  a  small  table  with 
hands  joined  together,  but  no  one  touching  the  table.  Very  soon 
knocks  came  and  messages  were  spelt  out  as  one  of  us  repeated  the 
alphabet  aloud.  Suddenly  the  knocks  increased  in  violence,  and, 
being  encouraged,  a  tremendous  bang  came  which  shook  the  room 
and  resembled  the  blow  of  a  sledge  hammer  on  an  anvil.  A  tin 
trumpet  which  had  been  placed  below  the  table  now  poked  out  its 
smaller  end  close  under  the  top  of  the  table  where  I  was  sitting. 

I  was  allowed  to  try  to  catch  it,  but  it  dodged  all  my  attempts  in 
the  most  amusing  way;  the  medium  on  the  opposite  side  sat  per¬ 
fectly  still,  while  at  my  request  all  held  up  their  hands  so  that  I 
could  see  no  one  was  touching  the  trumpet,  as  it  played  peep-bo 
with  me.  Sounds  like  the  sawing  of  wood,  the  bouncing  of  a  ball 
and  other  noises  occurred,  which  were  inexplicable. 

“  Then  the  table  began  to  rise  from  the  floor  some  eighteen  inches 
and  remained  so  suspended  and  quite  level.  I  was  allowed  to  go  up 
to  the  table  and  saw  clearly  no  one  was  touching  it,  a  clear  space 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  347 

separating  the  sitters  from  the  table.  I  tried  to  press  the  table 
down,  and  though  I  exerted  all  my  strength  could  not  do  so;  then 
I  climbed  up  on  the  table  and  sat  on  it,  my  feet  off  the  floor,  when 
I  was  swayed  to  and  fro  and  finally  tipped  off.  The  table  of  its 
own  accord  now  turned  upside  down,  no  one  touching  it,  and  I  tried 
to  lift  it  off  the  ground,  but  it  could  not  be  stirred,  it  appeared 
screwed  down  to  the  floor.  At  my  request  all  the  sitters’  clasped 
hands  had  been  kept  raised  above  their  heads,  and  I  could  see  that 
no  one  was  touching  the  table  —  when  I  desisted  from  trying  to 
lift  the  inverted  table  from  the  floor,  it  righted  itself  again  of  its 
own  accord,  no  one  helping  it.” 

I  am  not  concerned  with  any  explanation  of  these  facts.  Let  each 
reader  apply  his  own  hypothesis.  But  Dr.  Crawford  performed 
further  important  experiments  which  help  to  show  the  genuineness 
of  the  phenomena.  He  weighed  the  table  and  also  the  medium. 
Then  he  placed  the  medium  on  scales  while  the  experiment  with 
levitation  was  made.  While  the  table  was  in  the  air,  all  of  its 
•weight,  except  two  ounces,  was  transferred  to  the  medium  on  the 
scales,  though  she  was  not  touching  the  table.  He  then  placed  one 
of  the  other  sitters,  slightly  psychic,  on  the  scales,  and  accounted  for 
the  remaining  two  ounces.  He  then  placed  scales  under  the  table ; 
when  they  were  under  the  center  of  the  floating  table,  the  scales  reg¬ 
istered  appreciable  weight,  though  the  table  was  not  touching  them. 
He  noted  also  that,  when  a  light  cloth  was  placed  under  the  scales, 
'hardly  any  levitation  occurred.  He  put  a  dark  cloth  under  the 
scales,  and  the  levitation  became  normal.  He  found  that  he  could 
throw  light  from  a  bull’s-eye  electric  lamp  upon  the  top  of  the  table 
without  disturbing  the  levitation;  but,  if  he  threw  it  under  the 
table,  the  latter  immediately  fell  to  the  floor.  Hence  in  these  ex¬ 
periments  he  found  that  light  prevented  the  occurrence  of  the  phe¬ 
nomena.  I  found  this  to  be  true  also  of  the  phenomena  of  Miss 
Burton.  The  most  obvious  explanation  is,  that  the  light  prevented 
playing  the  trick;  but  the  observer  was  able  to  see  that  no  hands 
nor  feet  were  in  contact  with  the  table. 

The  transfer  of  the  weight  of  the  table  to  the  medium  would  be 
quite  in  accord  with  well-known  laws  of  mechanics  if  any  visible 
energy  extruded  itself  from  the  body  of  the  medium  and  raised 


348  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  table.  This  is  the  theory  that  Dr.  Crawford,  being  convinced 
that  there  was  no  physical  contact,  advanced.  The  experiment 
should  be  repeated,  before  the  scientific  world  can  be  impressed, 
but  the  authority  for  the  facts  is  not  to  be  summarily  dismissed. 

A  later  and  very  important  experiment  was  performed  by  Dr. 
Crawford.  He  made  a  table  with  four  small  wings  attached  by 
a  hinge  to  a  central  piece  and  resting  on  springs  which,  when  the 
hands  of  four  persons  pressed  as  much  as  two  pounds  upon  them, 
would  cause  metallic  contacts  and  the  ringing  of  a  bell.  The  whole 
was  suspended  three  or  four  inches  from  the  floor  to  scales  at¬ 
tached  to  the  ceiling.  Under  these  conditions  the  scales  registered 
as  much  as  26J/2  pounds  more  than  the  weight  of  the  table  with¬ 
out  the  ringing  of  the  bell.  That  is  without  a  pressure  of  two 
pounds  by  the  hands  the  table  registered  26^  pounds  more  than 
its  own  weight. 

The  experiment  is  important  as  showing  that  unconscious 
muscular  action  will  not  account  for  the  whole  result.  We  may 
explain  it  as  we  please.  The  fact  establishes  limits  to  the  explana¬ 
tion  by  unconscious  muscular  action  in  such  cases,  though  it  neither 
excludes  it  nor  prevents  the  hypothesis  that  external  influences  may 
even  affect  unconscious  muscular  action. 

My  own  experience  with  physical  phenomena  has  been  limited  to 
raps  and  lights.  I  had  a  very  striking  series  of  experiments  with 
a  young  lady  some  years  ago.  She  was  not  a  professional.  All 
that  she  could  do  at  that  time  was  to  produce  raps  and  spell  out 
messages  by  means  of  raps,  and,  by  the  same  means,  answer  “  Yes  ’’ 
and  “  No  ”  to  questions. 

Her  physician  brought  her  to  me  at  a  city  club  where  she  had 
never  been  before.  I  first  asked  for  raps  on  different  sides  of  her 
chair ;  these  were  produced.  Then  I  took  her  to  a  very  large  table, 
on  which  I  had  her  place  her  hands.  Very  distinct  raps  were  heard 
on  the  table,  though  no  motion  of  her  hands  or  fingers  was  observ¬ 
able.  When  I  put  my  ear  to  the  table,  while  still  watching  her 
hands,  I  could  feel  the  vibration  of  the  table  as  well  as  hear  the 
raps.  I  then  had  her  move  her  hands,  one  at  a  time,  from  the  table, 
and  saw  that  her  feet  did  not  touch  it.  The  raps  continued  as 
before  and  the  vibration  in  the  table  was  perceptible.  Having  heard 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  349 

that  she  had  made  a  piano-string  ring,  I  took  her  to  the  piano.  The 
piano  was  closed;  she  sat  down  near  it  as  if  to  play,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  loud  raps  were  audible  in  the  piano,  making  the  string  or 
wire  ring.  I  then  asked  her  to  remove  her  hands  one  at  a  time 
and  to  put  her  feet  back  from  the  piano.  She  did  so,  having  her 
feet  as  much  as  eight  inches  distant  from  the  piano  and  her  hands 
more  than  a  foot.  The  raps  and  ringing  of  the  string  went  on 
as  before.  All  this  was  in  broad  daylight.  There  was  nothing  to 
hinder  observation. 

I  arranged  to  meet  her  again  at  her  uncle’s  house,  in  order  to  try 
some  further  experiments.  After  getting  raps  under  her  feet,  I 
had  her  stand  on  a  very  thick  cushion.  When  she  was  standing 
on  the  cushion,  which  was  at  least  six  or  eight  inches  thick,  the  raps 
occurred  exactly  as  before,  with  the  same  quality  of  sound.  If 
made  by  the  joints,  the  raps  would  have  been  muffled  when  the  feet 
were  on  the  cushion.  I  then  had  her  stand  with  a  foot  on  each  of 
my  hands,  which  rested  on  the  cushion,  and  the  raps  occurred  ap¬ 
parently  on  the  floor,  with  the  same  quality  of  sound  as  when  her 
feet  were  on  the  floor.  I  then  tried  the  steam  radiator  some  dis¬ 
tance  away,  and  the  rap  had  a  metallic  ring,  as  if  on  iron.  I  then 
tried  the  piano  experiment  again.  This  time  I  had  her  hold  her 
hands  on  a  large  book  of  music,  on  which  were  a  dozen  or  two 
dozen  sheets  of  music.  The  piano  was  closed.  The  raps  were 
very  loud,  and  made  the  string  ring  so  that  the  sound  could  be  heard 
perhaps  a  hundred  feet  away.  I  again  had  her  remove  a  hand  at 
a  time  and  stand  away  from  the  piano.  Though  not  quite  so  loud, 
the  raps  continued  as  before. 

Though  we  might  suppose  that  there  was  some  apparatus  on  the 
body  for  making  raps  like  those  on  the  floor,  we  cannot  so  easily 
explain  the  ringing  of  the  piano  strings  without  any  contact.  I  had 
no  means  of  applying  mechanical  tests  to  the  case.  I  needed  appa¬ 
ratus  for  excluding  the  hypothesis  of  mechanical  means  concealed 
on  the  body.  But  in  the  absence  of  opportunity  for  such  tests,  I 
had  to  vary  the  experiment  so  that  whatever  hypothesis  applied  to 
one  instance  would  not  apply  to  another.  The  results  favored 
the  acceptance  of  the  genuineness  of  the  raps. 

I  got  raps  with  Miss  Burton  also,  while  she  was  holding  both 


350  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

hands  and  feet  away  from  the  table.  Moreover,  some  of  the  raps 
under  these  conditions  were  not  on  the  table,  but  on  the  window¬ 
sills  ten  feet  distant.  On  one  occasion  the  raps  sounded  on  the 
window-sill,  which  was  about  eight  feet  distant  and  in  the  light. 
I  then  stood  near  the  window,  within  a  foot,  and  the  raps  were  re¬ 
peated  many  times,  while  Miss  Burton,  in  a  trance,  was  six  or  eight 
feet  distant,  in  the  light,  not  moving  her  hands.  Questions  were 
intelligently  answered  by  these  raps ;  by  them  we  were  even  directed 
how  to  manage  the  girl  in  the  trance  when  one  of  the  personalities 
accidentally  got  “  locked  up,”  as  it  were. 

I  have  given  elsewhere  a  detailed  account  of  the  production  of  in¬ 
dependent  lights  by  Miss  Burton.  It  is  too  long  to  here  quote  in 
full.  After  taking  every  precaution  against  her  having  apparatus 
about  her  person  for  making  lights,  and  while  holding  her  hands,  I 
saw  very  large  lights.  They  were  of  a  kind  that  cannot  be  made  by 
either  phosphorus  or  electricity.  The  conditions  excluded  artificial 
methods.  It  is  very  probable  that  some,  but  not  all  of  them  oc¬ 
curred  on  the  tips  of  her  fingers.  Some  were  six  feet  distant,  as 
the  illumination  of  a  phonograph  showed. 

Later  I  received  messages  by  means  of  these  lights.  The  mes¬ 
sages  were  written  in  letters  of  fire  on  the  air  in  pitch  darkness 
and  gave  cross-references  with  other  psychics.  They  had  to  be 
read  sometimes  a  letter  at  a  time,  and  repeated  until  I  could  be 
certain  of  them. 

Professor  James  reported  an  instance  of  physical  phenomena  in 
an  article  published  in  the  “  Journal  ”  of  the  American  Society 
(Vol.  Ill,  pp.  109-113).  He  witnessed,  in  a  private  circle  of  peo¬ 
ple,  a  brass  ring  moved  without  the  contact  of  any  hand.  The 
details  cannot  be  given  here.  The  case  rests  on  the  authority  of 
Professor  James. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  Palladino  case  and  shall  not  quote  it, 
as  the  public  has  long  accepted  the  verdict  of  some  investigators  in 
this  country,  among  them  Professor  Muensterberg,  who  condemned 
the  case  as  fraud.  I  think  they  had  no  evidence  of  fraud;  but  I 
hold  this  opinion  because  I  should  treat  the  case  from  the  standpoint 
of  hysteria,  which,  though  it  furnishes  a  normal  explanation,  ex¬ 
cludes  fraud.  Palladino  should  have  been  studied,  as  Miss  Burton 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  SPIRITUALISM  351 

was,  from  the  point  of  view  of  abnormal  psychology.  In  contra¬ 
diction  of  the  verdict  in  this  country,  the  English  Society  obtained 
striking  results  in  levitation,  and  other  investigators  found  mental 
phenomena  of  some  interest,  with,  in  one  or  two  cases,  significant 
apparitions.  Continental  investigators  also  vouch  for  genuine 
physical  phenomena  in  her  case,  though  admitting  that  she  some¬ 
times  practised  fraud.  I  shall  not  defend  the  case  here,  in  as  much 
as  public  opinion  generally  accepts  the  verdict  of  trickery.  I  may 
say,  however,  that  one  of  the  men  who  signed  the  negative  report 
did  so  under  protest;  another  confessed  to  me  that  he  had  witnessed 
phenomena  in  the  experiments  not  so  easily  explained ;  and  one  dis¬ 
tinguished  scientific  man  stated  privately  his  personal  conviction  that 
some  of  the  phenomena  were  genuine.  The  case,  however,  is  too 
debatable  to  be  used  in  evidence  of  supernormal  physical  phenomena. 

I  can  only  repeat  in  conclusion  that  physical  phenomena  taken 
alone  are  not  evidence  for  the  existence  or  the  action  of  spirits. 
At  best,  when  taken  alone,  they  only  disprove  certain  claims  about 
the  limitations  of  nature,  or  prove  the  possibility  of  motion  without 
normal  contact.  The  association  of  mental  phenomena  or  intelli¬ 
gence  with  them,  supernormal  knowledge  evidential  of  transcenden¬ 
tal  agencies,  would  give  them  value  as  evidence  for  spiritism,  and 
would  also  suggest  radical  modification  of  our  conception  of  the 
relation  of  intelligence  to  the  physical  world.  But  this  is  not  the 
place  to  dwell  longer  on  that  aspect  of  the  problem.  We  were 
obliged  to  consider  physical  phenomena  because  of  their  traditional 
connection  with  psychic  phenomena  and  research.  They  have  still 
to  receive  as  much  confirmation  as  the  mental  phenomena  have  ob¬ 
tained,  and  this  confirmation  will  probably  not  be  forthcoming  until 
laboratory  methods  can  be  applied  to  them. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH 

The  general  public  has  been  led  by  psychic  research  to  hope 
that  we  all  survive  death,  and  it  has  tolerated  our  labori¬ 
ous  and  tedious  investigations  with  the  expectation  that 
we  should  soon  announce  our  conclusions  about  the  nature  of  an¬ 
other  life.  But  no  word  has  come  from  investigators  to  give  assur¬ 
ance  of  anything  except  that  we  survive.  It  is  the  character  of 
the  future  life,  however,  that  interests  most  people  far  more  than 
evidence  of  continued  existence  without  any  information  as  to  what 
it  is  like.  When  the  assertion  is  made  that  we  live  after  death,  the 
average  man  wants  to  know  what  that  life  offers  in  the  way  of  en¬ 
joyment. 

But  those  who  look  at  the  subject  in  this  way  understand  neither 
the  scientific  problem  nor  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  satisfying 
their  desires.  The  evidence  which  proves  the  fact  may  not  reveal 
a  single  feature  of  its  nature.  We  simply  observe  facts  which  can¬ 
not  be  accounted  for  by  ordinary  explanations.  Supernormal 
knowledge  obtainable  only  by  the  continued  activity  of  deceased 
persons  justifies  the  inference  that  consciousness  continues,  but  does 
not  reveal  the  nature  of  the  life  thus  implied.  The  problem  of  de¬ 
termining  this  nature  is  very  complex,  and  no  hasty  demands  can 
be  made  upon  the  scientific  man  to  satisfy  the  natural  desire  to  know 
what  the  transcendental  world  really  is. 

It  is  sense-perception  that  gives  us  a  clear  idea  of  what  reality  is 
or  appears  to  be  in  normal  experience.  We  react  to  physical  stimuli 
affecting  the  sensory  end-organs.  These  experiences  attest  for  us 
the  existence  of  an  external  physical  world,  even  when  they  may 
not  reveal  its  true  nature.  Whatever  theories  we  may  hold  about 
sense-perception,  it  is  the  means  of  learning  that  we  have  to  reckon 
with  something  else  than  ourselves  and  is  the  only  means  of  inter¬ 
communication  with  one  another.  For  all  practical  purposes,  it 

3.S2 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  353 

serves  to  define  the  nature  of  reality,  though  by  that  nature  we 
may  mean  no  more  than  uniformity  of  effect  on  the  sense-organs. 
Its  constancy  and  our  dependence  on  it  for  our  adjustments  in  life 
make  sense-perception  the  standard  of  our  ideas,  especially  of  such 
as  can  be  communicated  to  other  men.  All  conceptions  that  have 
no  such  reference  are  considered  subjective  or  abstract.  Ideas 
not  expressible  in  terms  of  sense-perception  are  vague  and  not 
communicable  to  others.  Most  people,  when  listening  to  statements 
about  a  future  life,  must  naturally  try  to  conceive  or  picture  it  by 
means  of  sensory  images,  which  make  it  intelligible  to  them.  The 
Book  of  Revelation,  for  instance,  which  gives  at  least  one  form  of 
the  Christian  conception,  describes  the  spiritual  world  in  terms  of 
sensory  pictures  of  physical  realities.  Even  though  we  try  to 
interpret  the  representation  as  symbolic,  the  details  of  the  descrip¬ 
tion  are  dependent  on  material  analogies.  The  doctrine  of  the 
physical  resurrection  assumes  that  the  spiritual  world  is  like  the 
physical.  But  the  philosophic  mind  can  never  be  made  to  believe 
this.  To  it  the  spiritual  is  the  antithesis  of  the  material.  It  even 
goes  so  far  as  to  deprive  spirit  of  every  attribute  of  matter,  leaving 
it  a  spaceless  point  of  force.  This  theory  is  neither  intelligible  nor 
interesting  to  the  average  man,  who  conceives  all  reality  by  means 
of  sensory  images.  A  spiritual  world  that  is  not  a  “  world  ”  at 
all,  but  the  absence  of  everything  that  constitutes  what  we  call  a 
world,  does  not  appeal  to  him  as  worth  either  proving  or  having. 
That  is  to  say,  the  tendency  is  to  conceive  the  spiritual  world  as 
resembling  the  physical,  even  when  we  acknowledge  that  it  is  differ¬ 
ent  in  certain  fundamental  aspects. 

The  paradox  of  the  ordinary  view  of  a  spiritual  world  lies  in 
definition  of  spirit  as  opposed  to  matter,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
spiritual  world  is  described  in  terms  of  that  very  matter  which  has 
been  excluded.  Such  a  view  offers  a  good  butt  for  ridicule :  often 
the  accounts  of  life  in  a  spiritual  world  include  so  complete  a 
duplication  of  all  that  goes  on  in  the  physical  world,  when  we  are 
supposed  to  have  been  divested  of  the  conditions  that  made  such 
aids  necessary,  that  the  skeptic  may  be  excused  for  his  contempt. 
He  takes  the  antithesis  between  matter  and  spirit  in  earnest,  while 
the  believer  does  not.  When  we  are  told  that  spirits  wear  clothes, 


354  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

partake  of  banquets,  have  the  same  vocations  there  as  here,  are 
teachers,  artists,  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  perhaps  farmers, 
we  are  listening  only  to  the  logical  consequences  of  making  the  spir¬ 
itual  world  exactly  like  our  own.  But  such  economic  arrangements 
are  superfluous  when  we  are  rid  of  the  body.  Why  all  the  useless 
machinery  of  an  earthly  life  when  it  serves  no  imaginable  purpose 
in  a  “  spiritual  ”  world  ?  The  accounts  on  these  points  are  not  al¬ 
ways  consistent.  Some  deny  the  existence  of  any  conditions  such 
as  I  have  mentioned,  and  others  tell  us  that  we  can  form  no  con¬ 
ception  of  the  future  life. 

We  may  say,  however,  that  it  is  much  easier  to  defend  the  physi¬ 
cal  view  of  the  spiritual  world  from  the  standpoint  of  physical  sci¬ 
ence  than  is  at  first  apparent.  Physical  science  with  all  its  boasted 
dependence  on  sense-perception  for  its  standard  of  reality  pays  no 
attention  to  this  standard  when  it  seeks  explanations.  It  deals  with 
supersensible  realities  quite  as  extensively  as  does  theology  or  reli¬ 
gion  or  spiritualism.  Its  atoms,  ions,  electrons,  corpuscles,  ether. 
X-rays,  N-rays,  and  even  the  vibrations  supposed  to  cause  light,  are 
as  unrepresentable  in  sense-perception  as  spirit  can  possibly  be  to 
any  one  who  refuses  to  conceive  it  in  terms  of  sensory  properties. 
The  real  physical  world  of  the  scientists,  though  it  is  called  “  mat¬ 
ter,”  is  quite  as  truly  beyond  sense-perception  as  spirit  is.  The 
original  notion  of  matter  is  of  a  substance  which  affects  the  senses. 
Atoms,  ions,  and  electrons  are  not  sensible  objects  of  knowledge. 
Why,  then,  are  they  called  matter? 

The  fact  is  that  very  soon  in  its  development  physical  science  ex¬ 
tended  its  conception  of  matter  to  include  supersensible  forms. 
The  atomists  set  up  the  atoms,  the  earlier  thinkers  set  up  elements 
which  were  only  adumbration  of  the  atoms.  Though  the  atoms 
were  no  more  the  objects  of  sense  than  are  spirits,  yet  because  they 
were  supposed  to  comprise  complex  sensible  wholes,  organic  or 
inorganic,  bcause  they  were  regarded  as  the  material  cause  of  what 
we  can  see  or  feel,  the  “  stuff  ”  out  of  which  these  things  were  made, 
the  term  “  physical  ”  or  “  material  ”  was  applied  to  them.  From 
that  time  on  science  had  the  ineradicable  habit  of  including  the 
supersensible  in  the  conception  of  matter  as  well  as  of  spirit,  though 
it  continued  its  hostilitv  to  the  latter  1 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  355 

Now  if  there  can  be  a  supersensible  world  of  matter  why  may 
there  not  also  be  a  supersensible  world  of  spirit?  The  very  phi¬ 
losophers  who  thus  extended  the  conception  of  matter  held  that 
spirit  was  itself  a  fine  form  of  matter;  they  simply  regarded  it  as 
a  supersensible  type  of  matter.  It  was  much  later  that  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  matter  and  spirit  was  developed  into  a  complete 
antithesis. 

This  antithesis  was  probably  occasioned  by  the  change  in  the 
definition  of  matter.  The  extension  of  the  term  to  cover  super¬ 
sensible  realities  at  the  basis  of  the  sensible  made  it  necessary  to 
abandon  sensible  qualities  as  part  of  the  definition,  for  all  but  prac¬ 
tical  purposes.  Hence  to  the  modern  physicist  matter  is  that  which 
manifests  inertia,  gravity  and  impenetrability.  These  properties 
are  supposed  to  apply  to  its  supersensible  as  well  as  its  sensible 
forms.  After  this  conception  of  matter  was  accepted,  spirit  lost 
its  ancient  meaning  of  a  fine  form  of  matter  and  was  described  by 
qualities  that  bear  no  resemblance  to  those  of  matter.  In  the  con¬ 
ceptions  of  Leibnitz  and  Boscovitch  it  is  spaceless  and  character¬ 
ized  only  by  intelligence  or  consciousness.  This  radical  dualism, 
not  characteristic  of  ancient  thought,  is  what  has  made  incredible 
the  statements  in  which  a  spiritual  world  is  given  material  charac¬ 
teristics  and  habits  of  action.  The  advocate  of  spirit  is  perhaps  as 
much  to  blame  as  his  opponents  for  this  predicament.  At  any  rate 
it  arose,  and  involved  the  difficulty  of  believing  any  description  of 
a  transcendental  world  that  is  only  matter  disguised  and  yet  is  called 
“  spiritual,”  when  the  spiritual  supposedly  has  none  of  the  qualities 
of  the  material.  The  mere  acknowledgment  of  supersensible  real¬ 
ity,  therefore,  does  not  imply  the  spiritual,  if  so  extreme  a  concep¬ 
tion  of  it  be  taken.  Yet  it  opens  such  a  vista  of  possibilities  that 
scientific  and  materialistic  dogmatism  has  no  ground  for  assurance 
on  its  side.  When  matter  can  assume  supersensible  forms  —  that 
is,  lose  such  properties  as  make  it  accessible  to  sense-perception  — 
may  it  not  further  change  its  form  so  as  to  lose  even  those  proper¬ 
ties  by  which  science  now  recognizes  it  even  in  its  supersensible 
forms  ?  May  there  not  exist  either  a  kind  or  a  condition  of  matter 
in  which  it  may  lose  inertia,  gravity  and  impenetrability,  or  any  one 
or  two  of  these  properties,  and  may  manifest  consciousness?  I  am 


356  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

far  from  believing  this  theory,  as  there  is  neither  evidence  for  it 
nor  justification  in  the  mere  desire  to  save  spiritistic  philosophies. 
But  I  am  not  so  dogmatic  as  to  say  that  it  is  impossible.  We  merely 
know  that  analogies  to  this  transformation  exist  in  physics  and 
chemistry,  and  we  may  keep  our  minds  open  to  such  possibilities, 
if  qualitative  unity  in  nature  he  required.  The  fact  is,  however, 
that  we  do  not  require  any  such  unity.  We  do  not  know  the  limits 
of  the  multiplicity  of  nature.  It  is  only  the  desire  for  what  is 
called  monism  that  leads  men  to  eliminate  spirit  from  nature.  But 
_tiLei'e_.is_multiplicity  enough  within  every  system  of  monism,  ma¬ 
terialistic  or  otherwise,  to  include  all  that  goes  by  the  name  of 
spirit. 

The  conception  of  spirit  by  radical  dualism  as  the  opposite  of 
matter,  tends  to  make  us  think  that  matter  and  spirit  cannot  exist 
side  by  side  nor  interact.  Even  the  ancients  took  this  position, 
though  perhaps  for  other  reasons.  The  Epicureans,  though  mate¬ 
rialists,  admitted  the  existence  of  the  gods,  but  placed  them  in  the 
intermundia  where  they  could  exercise  no  influence  nor  causal 
action  on  the  course  of  nature.  The  Epicurean  theory  of  “  mate¬ 
rial  causes  ”  eliminated  mind  as  a  cause  of  anything,  cosmic  or 
individual.  Other  philosophers  placed  mind  back  of  the  cosmic 
order,  but  postulated  an  eternal  substance  besides  mind.  The  ma¬ 
terialists  who  admitted  the  existence  of  mind  or  soul,  gave  it  neither 
causal  action  on  the  body  nor  survival  after  death.  How  they  could 
compass  its  destruction  consistently  with  their  theory  of  the  per¬ 
manence  of  other  things  is  not  easy  to  understand. 

Modern  materialism  cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  abandoning  the 
existence  of  soul  and  explaining  its  apparent  activities  as  functions 
of  the  brain.  But  it  gives  no  further  definition  of  consciousness; 
it  does  nothing  to  reduce  it  to  physical  types ;  it  leaves  its  nature  as 
mysterious  as  before.  There  are,  then,  at  least  two  and  perhaps 
three  considerations  which  may  be  urged  upon  physical  science  to 
show  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  world  like  the  physical  world  we 
know,  though  not  wholly  described  in  terms  of  our  sensory  life. 

There  is,  first,  the  concession  of  a  supersensible  world  even  of 
matter. 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  357 

There  is,  second,  the  fact  that  even  materialism  has  to  admit  the 
existence  of  consciousness  as  an  irreducible  phenomenon,  though 
only  as  a  function  of  matter,  and  thus  assumes  that  something  dif¬ 
ferent  from  matter  can  exist  side  by  side  with  it.  It  concedes  that 
matter  can  be  known  by  consciousness  and  yet  not  participate  in  its 
nature ;  that  is,  not  have  the  properties  by  which  matter  is  known. 

A  third  and  more  important  point  of  view  is  the  following:  If 
we  have  evidence  enough  to  justify  the  belief  that  consciousness 
survives  death',  we  prove  at  the  same  time  that  consciousness  or 
the  soul  existed  side  by  side  with  matter  before  death.  That  is, 
the  physical  world  is  not  incompatible  with  the  presence  of  a  soul 
whether  defined  as  a  fine  form  of  matter  or  as  the  absolute  antithesis 
to  matter. 

Now  in  the  present  discussion  the  existence  and  survival  of  a 
soul  is  taken  as  scientifically  proved.  We  need  not  determine  its 
nature  in  relation  to  matter.  The  fact  remains  that  consciousness 
is  not  a  function  of  the  brain,  that  spiritual  realities  exist  in  the 
present  physical  order.  Death  then  may  be  only  the  separation  of 
the  spiritual  form  from  the  sensory  form  of  the  physical,  or  the 
sensory  manifestation  of  the  physical,  and  the  soul’s  environment 
after  death  may  be  the  same  physical  world  in  its  supersensible 
aspects.  That  is,  the  spiritual  world  may  be  like  the  physical  with¬ 
out  being  any  more  accessible  to  sense-perception  than  the  super¬ 
sensible  world  of  physical  science  is  now. 

Now  we  come  to  the  experiences  which  at  least  appear  to  point  in 
just  this  direction.  These  are  of  two  types:  (i)  apparitions,  and 
(2)  mediumistic  communications.  Apparitions  represent  spirit  in 
the  spatial  form  of  physical  reality.  They  probably  gave  rise  to 
the  Epicurean  doctrine  of  the  “  ethereal  organism  ”  and  the  Pauline 
“  spiritual  body,”  and  the  “  astral  body  ”  of  the  theosophists,  though 
this  last  term  is  sometimes  given  a  more  technical  meaning.  But 
they  imply  a  reality  in  certain  respects  like  matter,  though  not  visible 
to  normal  sense-perception.  The  natural  interpretation  is,  that  we 
see  spirits  when  we  see  apparitions.  If  we  accept  that  interpreta¬ 
tion,  there  at  least  seems  to  be  a  decided  resemblance  of  the  spiritual 
world  to  the  physical,  even  in  the  very  nature  and  form  of  spirit 


358  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

itself.  In  support  of  this  theory  are  frequent  statements  through 
mediums,  which  may  not  be  conclusive,  but  have  weight  and  make 
it  imperative  that  we  should  investigate  their  meaning  fully.  Both 
of  these  sources  imply  that  the  spiritual  world  is  like  the  physical, 
at  least  in  its  form  and  appearance,  though  it  may  differ  from  the 
physical  world  as  known  to  the  senses,  as  much  as  the  supersensible 
physical  world  differs  from  the  sensible.  It  may  thus  be  a  world 
in  which  the  supersensible  is  without  inertia,  gravity  and  impenetra¬ 
bility,  and  yet  has  the  apparent  form  of  matter. 

The  only  difficulty  in  urging  this  view  is  that  many  apparitions 
are  simply  phantasms  produced  either  by  telepathy  between  the 
living  or  by  telepathy  between  the  dead  and  the  living.  Medium- 
istic  communications,  whether  conclusive  or  not,  are  more  cogent 
as  evidence.  But  when  we  consider  that  a  pictographic  process  is 
the  frequent  or  constant  method  of  communication  from  a  trans¬ 
cendental  wmrld,  and  that  the  interpretation  of  the  mental  pictures 
by  the  subconscious  minds  of  the  mediums  may  distort  their  sig¬ 
nificance  as  representations  of  spiritual  realities,  we  may  have  to 
suspend  judgment. 

But  phantasms  and  appearances  represented  in  mediumistic  mes¬ 
sages,  regardless  of  supposed  distortion  in  their  transmission  to 
us,  may  still  correctly  represent  the  nature  of  a  spiritual  world, 
as  the  image  on  a  photograph  plate  or  the  retina  represents  the 
object  producing  it. 

I  am  far  from  regarding  all  this  argument  as  proof  of  the  doc¬ 
trine,  but  it  clears  away  the  perplexities  which  attend  the  radically 
dualistic  theory.  If  apparitions  and  mediumistic  communications 
attest  the  existence  of  spirit,  and  if  we  are  willing  to  recognize 
the  possibility  that  the  apparitions  correctly  represent  reality,  we 
may  then  have  recourse  to  other  methods  for  ascertaining  how 
far  the  resemblance  to  the  physical  world  extends.  We  raise  no 
questions  whether  spirit  is  material  or  immaterial.  We  decide 
first  that  it  can  exist  independently  of  matter  as  we  know  it  sen¬ 
sibly,  or  even  supersensibly,  and  then  investigate  in  other  ways  its 
further  nature.  For  all  that  we  know,  therefore,  the  next  world 
or  life  may  be  very  like  the  present  one,  despite  apparently  very 
radical  differences.  No  man  is  in  a  position  scientifically  to  deny 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH 


359 

such  a  possibility.  The  scientific  evidence  for  the  existence  of 
spirit  establishes  such  a  world,  whether  we  chose  to  regard  it  as 
objectively  similar  or  dissimilar  to  our  physical  world. 

We  may  conceive  the  next  life,  then,  as  having  the  same  physical 
cosmos  to  deal  with,  but  as  not  perceiving  it  in  the  same  way.  The 
spiritual  world  may  be  simply  the  supersensible  side  of  what  is  now 
sensible  to  us.  How  we  may  be  related  to  it  as  we  are  to  matter 
in  our  physical  embodiment  is  not  conjecturable,  as  facts  to  indicate 
the  relation  have  not  yet  been  discovered.  But  it  is  entirely  con¬ 
ceivable  that  it  should  be  the  same  world  and  yet  not  appear  to 
be  the  same,  since  the  stimulus  on  spirit  after  death  may  be  very 
different  from  present  stimuli  on  the  physical  sense-organs.  It 
may  be  the  same  world  even  without  our  directly  knowing  it  at  all, 
though  existing  in  it ;  for  only  one  aspect  of  it  appears  to  us  now. 
The  soul’s  activities  may  be  more  active  or  creative  in  the  spiritual 
than  in  the  terrestrial  life.  But  we  do  not  know.  There  are  many 
possibilities  which  await  further  investigation. 

But  there  is  one  more  important  objection  or  difficulty  with  which 
we  have  to  deal :  the  contradictions  in  the  messages  descriptive  of 
the  future  life.  Though  they  speak  of  it  as  if  it  were  the  same 
physical  world  as  that  known  to  sense,  hardly  any  two  writers  or 
communicators  represent  it  in  the  same  way.  One  may  tell  us 
that  spirits  wear  clothes  and  another  may  modify  this  statement 
by  saying  that  the  clothes  are  “  creations  of  thought.”  One  repre¬ 
sents  the  dead  as  living  in  houses,  and  others  deny  that  they  do  so, 
while  still  others  mediate  between  these  two  extremes  by  making  the 
houses  products  of  thought  or  purely  imaginary.  Some  tell  us 
that  we  could  not  understand  any  statement  about  the  spiritual 
world.  All  these  contradictions  imply  either  differences  of  opinion 
about  the  other  life  or  the  distortion  of  messages  by  the  subcon¬ 
scious  of  the  medium,  or  perhaps  both  combined.  In  any  case,  the 
statements  are  so  different  and  apparently  so  contradictory  that  we 
cannot  unreservedly  trust  any  communication  as  correctly  des- 
scribing  the  nature  of  that  life. 

But  there  is  a  way  to  establish  unity  in  this  apparent  chaos  of 
inconsistencies.  We  have  found  by  experience  that  subconscious 
states  produce  a  far  more  distinct  appearance  of  reality  than  does 


36o  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

normal  imagination.  The  subconscious,  in  dreams,  delirium,  hal¬ 
lucinations,  and  hypnosis,  gives  apparent  physical  reality  to  its 
objects.  Mental  creations  appear  to  be  physical  or  objective  reali¬ 
ties.  Now  as  such  creations  are  often  independent  of  normal 
physical  stimuli,  we  may  suppose  that  these  functions  are  those  that 
survive  bodily  death;  and,  if  this  be  true,  they  would  often  pro¬ 
duce  apparent  physical  realities,  just  as  they  do  in  our  subconscious. 
If  they  did  so,  and  we  could  not  introspect  nor  analyze  any  more 
than  we  can  in  sleep  or  hypnosis,  we  should  take  them  for  reality. 
If  some  spirits  should  continue  the  exercise  of  subconscious  activi¬ 
ties,  whatever  the  cause,  temporary  or  permanent,  they  might  take 
the  result  to  be  real;  but,  even  if  they  did  not,  the  transmission  of 
pictures  to  the  living  through  subconscious  functions  might  stimul¬ 
ate  reality.  We  should  then  find  the  statements  about  the  spiritual 
world  as  various  as  the  experiences  and  opinions  of  the  communi¬ 
cators.  At  least  a  part  of  the  after  life  may  be  mental,  a  sub¬ 
jective  creation,  though  taken  as  physically  real  either  by  the  spirit 
or  by  the  medium  through  which  the  messages  come. 

Perhaps  the  matter  can  be  somewhat  clarified  by  approaching 
it  through  what  every  one  knows  of  normal  mental  action.  Our 
knowledge  or  experience  is  divided  into  two  types,  both  perfectly 
familiar  to  every  one.  The  first  is  sensation,  the  response  to 
physical  stimuli.  The  second  is  reflection  or  self-consciousness, 
the  inner  mental  states,  so  to  speak.  These  may  not  be  represent¬ 
able  in  terms  of  external  things,  but  are  as  clearly  known  as  sensa¬ 
tions.  Their  peculiarity  is  that  they  have  a  degree  of  independence 
of  sensory  states  and  of  external  stimuli  or  physical  objects.  We 
can  think  when  we  are  not  having  sensations  and  we  can  always 
think  about  sensations.  These  acts  of  mind  go  on  whether  we  are 
responding  to  external  physical  impressions  or  not.  In  fact  these 
inner  states,  especially  the  emotions,  are  the  representatives  of  value 
in  experience,  and  appear  to  us  to  be  the  most  important.  Sensory 
phenomena  are  important  only  as  signals  in  our  relation  to  the 
physical  world.  If  we  could  free  ourselves  from  this  relation,  we 
might  go  on  with  the  inner  life  without  reference  to  an  external 
world.  When  death  destroys  the  sensory  functions  it  may  leave 
the  reflective  functions  to  continue  their  action;  that  is,  it  may 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  361 

simply  make  them  more  independent  of  matter  than  they  are  in 
the  bodily  life. 

A  further  support  of  this  view  comes  from  study  of  the  subcon¬ 
scious  activities  of  the  mind.  These  are  manifestly  more  nearly 
independent  of  normal  stimuli  than  is  ordinary  self-consciousness. 
They  are  going  on  all  the  time.  We  have  evidence  that  sleep 
does  not  suspend  them  in  the  least  and  that  the  dreams  we  know  are 
but  fragments  of  the  images  produced  in  sleep.  In  healthy  condi¬ 
tions  they  are  concealed  from  us  altogether,  and  only  when  some 
derangement  is  present  do  they  invade  normal  activities  and  cause 
all  sorts  of  hysterias  and  dissociations.  They  produce  images  that 
are  taken  for  realities — for  instance,  hallucinations.  Often  a 
dream  is  so  vivid  that  the  subject  can  easily  and  clearly  distinguish 
between  it  and  ordinary  dreams,  which  are  more  like  the  products 
of  imagination,  known  to  be  unreal.  Assuming,  as  did  Mr.  Myers, 
that  the  subconscious  functions,  freed  from  sense  domination, 
adumbrate  the  nature  of  the  future  life  and  themselves  survive  in 
independence  of  sensory  stimuli,  we  have  a  theory  that  explains 
all  the  contradictions  in  the  revelations  of  the  next  life.  Different 
persons  have  different  interests  and  tastes,  and  these  interests  are 
preserved  with  their  personal  identity.  If  they  continue  to  use 
the  functions  represented  in  subliminal  activities,  creating  apparent 
reality  as  in  dreams,  somnambulism,  hallucinations,  and  hypnosis, 
they  will  differ  as  much  as  men  differ  now  in  their  thoughts  and 
ideals.  When  in  contact  with  living  psychics,  these  states  will  be 
transferred  as  pictographic  images,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
by  the  communicator  and  accepted  by  the  psychic  as  representing  at 
least  a  quasi-physical  reality.  In  such  a  situation  all  sorts  of  con¬ 
fusion  might  arise.  The  earth-bound,  who  are  those  mostly  in¬ 
terested  in  the  memories  and  experiences  of  a  physical  life,  would 
reflect  states  that  belonged  to  their  past  sensor}’  lives,  and,  in  the 
course  of  communication  by  the  pictographic  process,  create  the 
impression  that  the  spiritual  life  simply  duplicates  the  physical. 

A  life  of  mere  thinking  and  dreaming  may  not  appear  very  in¬ 
viting  to  most  people,  but  I  am  not  concerned  with  what  we  like  or 
dislike.  Science  has  to  accept  the  universe  as  it  is,  and  to  find  out 
what  it  is  doing,  not  necessarily  to  gratify  human  desires.  If  the 


362  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

next  life  consists  of  day-dreaming,  we  shall  have  to  accept  it  whether 
we  like  it  or  not.  But  I  am  not  sure  that  this  conception  rightly 
represents  the  facts.  We  have  not  evidence  enough  to  show  what 
the  transcendental  world  is  in  its  entirety.  I  have  already  said 
that  it  may  be  only  the  other  side  of  our  own  world,  with  a  little 
more  subjective  or  creative  independence  than  normal  conscious¬ 
ness  now  has.  We  discover  in  the  confused  statements  about  it, 
especially  the  paradoxical  assertions  of  the  earth-bound  and  the 
occasional  explanation  of  their  mental  states  as  illusions  and  hal¬ 
lucinations;  in  the  frequent  admission  that  thought  and  creative 
influences  are  more  dominant  there  than  here;  in  the  views  of 
Swedenborg,  which  anticipated  all  that  the  pictographic  process 
reveals  —  in  all  these  we  discover  traces  of  a  mental  world  which 
has  much  more  freedom  for  activity  than  when  it  is  hampered  by 
bodily  wants  and  subjected  to  physical  influences.  It  is  certain,  if 
a  future  life  has  been  proved  or  rendered  probable  at  all,  that,  at 
least  in  the  first  period  of  life  after  death  for  many  people,  the 
creative  functions  of  consciousness  play  a  part  in  the  representation 
of  the  spiritual  world.  Only  the  knowledge  that  subconscious  in¬ 
fluences  in  the  living  media  of  transmission  may  distort  the  message 
or  make  it  fragmentary  will  induce  us  to  state  the  conditions  cau¬ 
tiously  and  with  the  reservation  that  the  point  of  view  above  taken 
is  at  most  a  tentative  and  partial  account  of  the  facts. 

To  quote  the  evidence  in  support  of  this  contention  would  re¬ 
quire  a  volume  or  two.  Much  of  the  material  could  not  be  re¬ 
garded  as  satisfactory  evidence.  Only  sporadic  and  unconscious 
remarks  in  the  course  of  discussion  of  other  problems  indicate  to 
us  a  mental  world  analogous  to  that  of  dreams,  except  that  it  is 
more  rational  and  systematic.  Even  on  the  other  side,  irrationality 
may  be  met  with  often  enough  in  those  unadjusted  to  their  en¬ 
vironment  or  obsessed  with  sensory  memories  and  desire. 

I  am  willing  to  admit  that  the  expression  “  mental  world  ”  will 
not  convey  much  information  or  be  clear  to  most  people,  and  I  do 
not  pretend  that  it  indicates  very  much  even  to  me.  It  is  a  barren 
phrase  to  most  people  and  hardly  less  so  to  myself.  But  it  affords  a 
point  of  contact  with  philosophic  idealism,  and  it  also  enables  us 
to  make  a  psychological  approach  to  the  problem  through  the 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  363 

subliminal  processes  and  the  inner  life  of  reflection,  which  do  not 
wholly  depend  upon  sense-experience  for  their  meaning.  That 

is,  those  functions  of  mind  that  exhibit  activities  other  than  sensory 
may  be  the  basis  for  conceiving  the  initial  stages  of  a  transcendental 
world  independent  of  sense-perception.  Hence  “  mental  world  ” 
expresses  the  group  of  activities  that  may  constitute  a  life  a  little 
more  independent  of  stimuli  than  is  life  in  our  physical  embodiment. 

As  I  have  already  indicated,  the  next  world  may  only  be  the 
supersensible  form  of  the  physical  world,  and  we  may  react  to  it  as 
we  do  to  the  present,  with  something  corresponding  to  sensation. 
But  the  conception  of  spirit  as  independent  of  the  senses,  is  better 
represented  by  the  subjective  functions  of  the  mind.  The  severance 
of  our  connection  with  the  physical  world  as  known  to  sense,  may 
leave  us  nothing  to  start  with  except  the  inner  functions  of  the  mind, 
memories  and  subliminal  faculties,  which  will  have  to  create  their 
own  realities  or  apparent  realities,  as  in  dreams,  poetizing,  reverie, 
and  day-dreaming,  at  least  until  some  pow'er  at  present  unknown 
may  enable  us  to  respond  to  the  new  environment.  This  response 
may  come  sooner  or  later  in  our  development  on  the  other  side. 
With  some  it  may  be  instantaneous  or  not  even  interrupted  by  death, 
and  with  others  much  intervening  time  may  elapse.  The  failure 
to  have  any  but  terrestrial  memories  to  live  upon,  with  their  at¬ 
tachment  to  sensuous  interests,  gives  rise  to  what  is  called  the 
earth-bound  condition,  a  state  in  which,  as  in  delirium  and  dreams, 
we  take  our  own  mental  states  for  physical  realities.  We  may 
have  to  pass  beyond  this  stage  in  order  to  become  adjusted  to  our 
environment;  the  eradication  of  purely  terrestrial  memories  may  be 
necessary  before  we  can  feel  and  appreciate  the  nature  of  a  spiritual 
world  just  as  purely  sensuous  activities  here  have  to  be  restrained, 
if  we  are  to  realize  what  is  called  spiritual  life  within  us. 

The  various  contradictions  about  the  next  life  make  scientific 
and  intelligent  people  doubt  the  assertions  so  frequently  made  about 

it.  It  is  human  nature  to  suppose  that,  if  we  accept  messages  as 
proof  of  continued  personal  identity,  we  should  also  accept  the  state¬ 
ments  made  about  the  future  life.  It  is  not,  however,  the  veracity 
of  communicators  that  secures  the  belief  in  their  existence,  but  the 
evidence  we  have  among  the  living  that  their  statements  are  true. 


364  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

No  message  is  accepted  because  it  claims  a  transcendental  origin,  but 
only  because  we  have  proof  that  the  psychic  through  whom  it  came 
was  ignorant  of  the  facts  announced,  and  because  we  can  verify  it 
on  the  testimony  of  the  living.  We  do  not  assume  the  veracity  of 
a  spirit  until  it  has  been  proved  by  the  same  methods  as  those 
used  among  the  living  to  justify  trust  in  their  statements.  Even 
if  proved  to  be  honestly  meant,  the  communications  may  not  be 
true.  They  may  be  the  result  of  mistaken  judgment.  More  than 
honesty  is  required  to  guarantee  truth.  Intelligence  is  quite  as  im¬ 
portant  as  veracity.  The  consequence  is  that  we  can  accept  noth¬ 
ing  purporting  to  come  from  spirits  except  what  we  can  prove. 
This  statement  is  especially  important  in  this  connection  because 
the  conditions  for  communicating  are  not  the  same  as  those  be¬ 
tween  the  living.  They  are  much  more  complex,  so  complex  that 
we  have  to  reckon  with  liabilities  of  error,  even  though  both  the 
veracity  and  the  intelligence  of  the  communicator  have  been  es¬ 
tablished.  The  distortion  of  messages  in  transmission  is  an  im¬ 
portant  factor  in  the  result ;  and  when  we  recognize  also  the  likeli¬ 
hood  of  error  in  the  impersonations,  we  may  well  doubt  statements 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  next  life. 

The  contradictions  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  hopeless  to  try  to 
accept  a  superficial  interpretation  of  the  phenomena.  One  set  of 
communicators  —  it  makes  no  difference  whether  they  are  real  or 
merely  subconscious  personalities  —  tells  us  that  life  in  the  spiritual 
world  duplicates  the  physical  life  exactly,  including  food,  dress, 
trade,  art,  “  cigar  manufactories,”  “  whiskey  sodas,”  and  the  whole 
gamut  of  objects  and  employments  that  we  indulge  in.  Another 
set  totally  denies  this  and  tells  us  that  we  cannot  conceive  what  the 
world  is  like.  Some  tell  us  that  reincarnation  is  true  ;  others  deny 
it.  Some  teach  orthodox  religious  views,  others  the  opposite. 
Some  believe  in  God  and  some  do  not.  Some  claim  to  live  in 
houses  and  others  do  not.  There  is  no  sort  of  unity  in  such  claims 
except  on  the  theory  that  the  after  life,  as  Swedenborg  maintained, 
is  one  of  mental  states.  Every  one  is  free  to  think  as  he  desires; 
and,  if  he  can  create  his  own  world,  as  is  constantly  asserted  in 
communications,  that  world  will  take  as  many  forms  as  there  are 
variant  minds  to  create  it,  just  as  the  subjective  existences  of  living 


MODE  OF  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH  365 

people  differ.  Landing  in  the  spiritual  world  with  personal  identity 
and  the  memories  of  a  terrestrial  life,  most  of  them  sensory,  and 
with  the  inherent  tendency  of  the  subliminal  functions  to  produce 
the  appearance  of  physical  reality,  spirits  might  well  give  discrepant 
accounts  of  the  life.  The  conception  of  a  world  of  mental  states 
brings  a  certain  consistency  into  the  phenomena,  to  which  we  may 
hold  while  we  pursue  investigations,  until  we  have  positive  evidence 
of  the  nature  of  the  environment  that  constitutes  objective  life  in 
the  spiritual  world. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


REVELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  discussion  in  the  previous  chapter  prepares  the  way 
for  what  is  to  be  said  on  this  present  subject.  If  it  be 
difficult  to  tell  what  the  nature  of  a  transcendental  life 
is,  it  will  be  equally  different  to  say  what  the  spiritual  world  itself 
is.  But  there  have  been  bold  enough  attempts  to  describe  it. 
St.  John’s  Book  of  Revelation  was  perhaps  the  first  after  Greek 
mythology.  In  modern  times,  the  works  of  Emanuel  Sweden¬ 
borg  and  later  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  have  perhaps  exer¬ 
cised  more  influence  than  any  others.  Swedenborg  described  the 
spiritual  world  rather  minutely,  but  his  symbolic  diction  was  not 
always  understood  and  his  theory  of  mental  states  was  never  ap¬ 
preciated  as  highly  by  the  laity  as  by  scholars.  The  laity  too 
often  interpreted  it  literally,  though  he  specifically  corrected  this 
misconception.  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  frankly  described  the  spirit¬ 
ual  world  in  sensory  terms  and  developed  no  theory  of  mental  states 
nor  any  doctrine  of  idealism. 

Before  saying  anything  about  the  value  of  revelations  I  should 
perhaps  give  examples  of  them.  They  intermingle  descriptive  ac¬ 
counts  of  the  spiritual  world  and  its  life  with  philosophy  and  ad¬ 
monitions  or  precepts. 

I  am  not  going  to  raise  or  decide  the  question  whether  the 
mediums  through  whom  the  revelations  came  are  honest  or  fraudul¬ 
ent.  For  our  purpose  here  it  makes  no  difference.  We  are  dis¬ 
cussing  not  the  source,  but  the  validity  of  the  messages.  The  condi¬ 
tions  determining  the  source  of  messages  are  one  thing  and  the  con¬ 
ditions  determining  validity  are  another,  even  though  ultimately  we 
must  know  something  of  the  source  when  considering  the  validity 
of  messages  purporting  to  describe  a  transcendental  world.  But 
even  then  their  validity  will  depend  not  upon  the  fact  that  they 
are  spiritistic,  but  upon  the  articulation  and  correlation  of  the  total 

366 


REVELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD  367 

mass  of  material  into  a  consistent  whole  and  perhaps  upon  some 
relation  to  the  known  in  the  physical  world.  I  do  not  care  at 
present  to  decide  this  question  of  source.  The  authors  from  whom 
I  quote  the  statements  believed  the  messages  to  come  from  a  spiritual 
world.  We  are  studying  the  relation  of  these  accounts  to  exist¬ 
ing  knowledge  and  to  each  other.  It  makes  no  difference  whether 
they  came  from  frauds  or  from  honest  people.  If  we  knew  enough 
of  the  transcendental  world  to  accept  statements  upon  the  proved 
veracity  of  the  communicators  it  might  suffice  to  be  assured  of  the 
honesty  of  the  source.  But  veracity  is  only  one  requirement  when 
we  have  to  learn  from  spirit  sources  the  nature  of  the  next  world 
and  its  life.  Competency  to  report  is  just  as  necessary  as  veracity. 
If  there  are  degrees  of  intelligence  and  different  planes  of  existence, 
the  testimonies  of  various  communicators  will  not  have  the  same 
value,  and  a  given  communication  may  not  represent  the  whole  of 
transcendental  existence.  Furthermore,  with  competency  proved, 
we  have  to  reckon  with  the  limitations  of  the  medium,  which  may 
so  modify  and  color  the  messages  as  wholly  transform  them  on  the 
^y.  All  these,  and  perhaps  more,  considerations  enter  into  the 
evaluation  of  the  messages ;  but  we  have  no  space  to  detail  them. 
We  are  only  illustrating  the  “  revelations  ”  purporting  to  give  ac¬ 
counts  of  the  spiritual  world,  disregarding  their  source  and  the 
influence  of  the  living  mind  upon  their  transmission.  We  have 
here  to  deal  with  them  superficially  as  they  come  to  us. 

I  shall  first  quote  a  passage  from  Dr.  Hare’s  work.  It  purports 
to  come  from  a  spirit  that  died  as  a  very  little  child  and  now  reports 
what  it  had  much  later  learned. 

“  My  life  here  has  been  a  charmed  one,  enrapturing  scenes  of  beauty 
being  constantly  presented  to  view,  like  the  ever  varying  landscapes  de¬ 
lineated  on  the  canvas  by  a  skilful  artist.  Now  is  seen  a  beautiful  silvery 
lake  on  whose  translucent  bosom  floats  the  graceful  swan,  bending  his 
pliant  neck,  as  if  proudly  conscious  of  his  surpassing  beauty ;  and  anon, 
among  the  hills  of  this  lake,  which  appear  like  gems  on  a  virgin  brow, 
shoots  a  tiny  barque,  freighted  with  angelic  children.  Then  is  presented  a 
bolder  view,  of  towering  mountains  and  wide-extended  plains,  with  the 
accompanying  characteristics  of  hill  and  dell. 

“  There  are  gardens  there  of  inconceivable  beauty,  filled  with  the  choic¬ 
est  and  most  aromatic  herbs  and  flowers,  and  birds  with  every  con¬ 
ceivable  variety  of  plumage.  The  parks  are  of  great  magnitude,  and 


368  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

abound  with  the  most  beautiful  animals.  The  swift  antelope,  the  wild 
gazelle,  and  the  graceful  deer  are  seen  ranging  over  the  flowery  plains. 
There  the  lion  and  the  lamb  lie  down  together  in  peaceful  innocence. 
There  are  congregated  millions  of  spirits,  who  are  associated  together  like 
a  harmonious  and  happy  family.  The  vales  are  vocal  with  celestial  melody, 
and  the  air  is  redolent  with  the  perfume  of  flowers.” 

Men  may  differ  as  to  the  spirituality  of  this  heaven.  Some  would 
regard  it  as  purely  materialistic,  but  I  am  sure  that  most  of  them 
would  enjoy  it  nevertheless. 

In  regard  to  the  employments  of  spirits  the  following  passage 
is  of  especial  interest,  particularly  as  one  statement  in  it  may 
throw  light  upon  the  whole  subject  of  the  transcendental  life. 

“  Our  scientific  researches  and  investigations  are  extended  to  all  that 
pertains  to  the  phenomena  of  universal  nature ;  to  all  the  wonders  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  to  whatever  the  mind  of  man  is  capable  of  con¬ 
ceiving:  all  of  which  exercise  our  faculties,  and  form  a  considerable  part 
of  our  enjoyments.  The  noble  and  sublime  sciences  of  astronomy,  chemis¬ 
try,  and  mathematics,  engage  a  considerable  portion  of  our  attention,  and 
afford  us  an  inexhaustible  subject  for  study  and  reflection. 

“  We  do  not  study  those  practical  arts,  which  are  so  essential  to  the 
earth-life,  such  as  mechanics,  etc. ;  for  we  do  not  stand  in  need  of  their 
applications ;  our  studies  being  wholly  of  a  mental  character,  we  attend  to 
the  fundamental  principles  only.  All  the  more  intellectual  branches  of 
the  arts  and  sciences  are  cultivated  in  a  much  more  perfect  manner  than 
that  to  which  we  have  been  accustomed  upon  earth.” 

Like  the  previous  passage,  this  regards  the  spiritual  world  as  a 
perfect  replica  of  the  physical  universe,  with  certain  exceptions 
which  the  careful  reader  will  note.  The  thing  to  be  specially  re¬ 
marked  is  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  the  practical  arts  and  the 
emphasis  upon  “  mental  ”  occupations.  Either  this  is  evidence  of  a 
subconscious  revolt  against  the  complete  reproduction  of  a  physical 
existence,  or  it  is  a  tacit  admission  of  radical  differences  between 
that  world  and  this.  The  allusion  to  mental  occupations  implies 
Swedenborg’s  view ;  namely,  that  the  spiritual  world  is  mental  and 
creative,  and  that  the  appearance  of  the  physical  is  therefore  an 
illusion.  If  we  accept  the  pictographic  process  of  intercommunica¬ 
tion  between  minds,  we  can  interpret  the  above  descriptions  as  per¬ 
taining  to  a  dream  life  of  some  kind,  whether  rational  or  otherwise. 
But  I  am  not  concerned  here  with  deciding  such  a  question.  The 


REVELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD  369 

main  point  is  to  notice  that  we  have  either  to  reckon  with  sub¬ 
conscious  imaginings  of  the  medium  or  with  a  conception  very- 
different  from  the  literal  meaning  of  the  report.  After  being 
taught  by  the  Cartesian  philosophy  and  much  Christian  speculation 
that  the  spiritual  world  is  not  material  and  that  it  can  have  no 
resemblance  to  the  present  life,  we  are  confronted  with  a  descrip¬ 
tion  of  it  as  exactly  like  our  own,  except  for  the  absence  of  evil. 
Only  a  careful  scrutiny  of  the  accounts  reveals  sporadic  but  signifi¬ 
cant  statements  completely  altering  the  conception  that  hasty  read¬ 
ing  creates. 

I  shall  next  quote  a  passage  from  the  work  of  Judge  Edmunds. 
But  I  must  first  remind  the  reader  that  he  must  be  on  the  lookout 
for  symbolic  meaning  in  the  description.  The  tone  of  the  account 
is  realistic,  and  we  should  not  ordinarily  suspect  that  it  had  any 
other  import.  Before  the  experiment  the  persons  present  had  been 
told  that  a  vision  would  come  to  Dr.  Dexter,  the  medium  in  the 
case.  After  following  instructions,  the  party  waited,  and  there 
came  the  following  vision.  It  is  descriptive  of  some  features  of 
the  next  life. 

“  Away  off  in  the  regions  of  space,  as  if  in  the  midst  of  the  starry  firma¬ 
ment,  I  saw  a  bright  and  majestic  spirit  sitting  in  a  sort  of  throne,  which 
was  placed  on  a  fleecy,  white  cloud.  A  few  feet  above  his  head  reposed 
a  wreath  of  flowers,  from  whence  flowed  rays  of  light  to  his  head,  form¬ 
ing,  as  it  were,  a  crown  of  light  and  flowers.  He  had  on  a  loose  garment, 
■beautifully  variegated  with  blue  and  pink,  and  ornamented  with  purple 
velvet,  which  sparkled  as  with  diamonds.  His  left  hand  rested  on  a  globe, 
on  the  arm  of  his  seat,  from  which  radiated  a  golden  light,  indicative  of 
affection.  On  the  right  arm  of  his  chair  was  a  similar  globe  radiating  a 
silver  light,  indicating  wisdom.  His  right  arm  was  raised,  and  he  pointed 
me  to  a  distant  view.  He  was  evidently  of  a  higher  command  in  the 
execution  of  God’s  laws  than  I  had  yet  seen.  Far  beneath  him  were  in¬ 
numerable  stars  of  all  sizes  careering  through  space,  and  apparently 
gamboling  in  the  exuberance  of  their  joy.  At  first  the  scene  seemed  to 
me  one  of  great  disorder;  but  as  I  gazed  I  saw  how  all  was  order  and 
harmony.  I  saw  many  spirits  coming  to  and  going  from  him,  as  if  with 
messages  —  coming  as  from  distant  stars,  and  vanishing  in  space  with  in¬ 
conceivable  rapidity. 

“  While  I  gazed,  I  saw  a  very  bright  light,  most  gorgeous,  like  a  blazing 
sun,  approaching  him  from  behind,  and  forming  a  background  to  him.  The 
rays  of  it  were  ever  shooting  out  from  its  center  various  hues,  yet  it 
seemed  formed  of  numberless  concentric  rings  of  different  colors.  I  can 
convey  no  idea  of  its  glorious  splendor. 


370  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

“  That  light  was  the  central  sun  of  all  these  systems  of  worlds  I  saw 
beneath  his  feet,  and  he  was  the  high  and  holy  intelligence  that  governed 
their  action  in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  God. 

“  He  arose  from  his  seat,  and  leaning  on  it  with  one  arm,  he  pointed 
me  with  the  other  off  to  his  right.  There  I  saw  a  bright  and  dazzling 
spirit,  with  no  clothing  upon  him,  but  shining  like  burnished  silver.  He 
was  floating  in  the  blue  ethereal,  and  seemed  a  great  storehouse  of 
dazzling  light,  which  he  was  scattering  from  him  in  all  directions. 

“  I  saw  that  he  was  superior  to  the  other  spirit,  yet  I  felt  as  if  there 
was  a  sense  of  solitude  about  him,  and  that  he  had  no  companions.  He 
replied  to  my  thought  by  spreading  out  his  hands  and  saying,  ‘  These 
worlds  are  my  companions ;  my  solitude  is  peopled  by  myriads  of  shining 
intelligences.’ 

“  He  pointed  me  to  other  systems  of  worlds  far  off  in  the  illimitable  dis¬ 
tance,  and  immense  in  number.  He  seemed  to  be  the  apex  of  a  cone; 
spreading  out  and  beneath  him  were  the  worlds  which  he  governed,  whose 
guide  and  director  he  was.  He  pointed  me  to  one  still  higher  than  himself, 
his  superior  in  power  and  wisdom.  Of  that  one  I  saw  only  the  head.” 

Now  we  have  only  to  look  carefully  at  this  description  to  see  that 
it  is  symbolical.  The  figures  said  to  represent  affection  and  wisdom 
are  the  first  clear  intimation  of  the  way  the  vision  is  to  be  inter¬ 
preted.  The  latter  part  carries  its  own  suggestion.  But  as  if  sug¬ 
gestion  were  not  enough,  the  author  adds  the  following  as  a 
part  of  the  message  conveyed  by  the  vision: 

“  The  great  lesson  taught  by  these  scenes  is  the  occupation  of  spirits, 
one  above  another,  in  their  career  of  progression  —  each  greater  than  the 
other,  and  executing  God’s  laws  on  a  larger  scale  and  in  a  higher  sphere.” 

The  whole  elaborate  imagery  is  therefore  symbolic,  as  those 
familiar  with  the  pictographic  process  will  readily  recognize,  while 
we  have  also  to  reckon  with  the  fact  that  the  language  of  the 
description  is  Dr.  Dexter’s.  The  picture  does  not  carry  with  it 
its  own  language  nor  its  own  interpretation.  Whether  this  last 
comes  from  the  mind  of  Dr.  Dexter,  or  from  the  transcendental 
world,  makes  no  difference.  The  narrative  continues  with  the 
following  passage  by  automatic  writing  through  Dr.  Dexter’s 
hand ; 

“  This  is  one  process  of  development.  Watch  and  see  his  form  rising 
from  that  brilliant  cloud  of  lambent  flame.  This  personifies  truth  as  de¬ 
veloped  to  minds  prepared  to  receive  it.  You  never,  perhaps,  may  see 
anything  so  brilliant  and  gorgeous  again.  Let  the  circle  be  particularly 
silent  and  let  their  minds  turn  to  this  subject.” 


RE\’ELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD  371 

Note  that  this  passage  is  explanatory  of  the  meaning  of  the  vision 
up  to  this  point.  The  phrase,  “  Personifying  truth”  for  “minds 
prepared  to  receive  it  ”  is  an  indication  that  the  apparently  sen¬ 
suous  description  is  really  concerned  with  abstract  ideas.  The  vi¬ 
sion  continues : 

“  There  arose  up  from  beneath  this  bodiless  spirit  a  beautiful  rose- 
colored  light.  It  was  indeed  a  glorious  sight,  which  language  is  inadequate 
to  describe. 

“  The  temple  was  surrounded  by  a  great  number  of  spirits,  with  musical 
instruments  in  their  hands,  and  from  them  arose  a  flood  of  music,  far  sur¬ 
passing  anything  ever  heard  by  mortal  ears.  The  building  had  a  Doric 
roof,  and  stood  high  up  from  its  base.  It  was  ascended  by  a  flight  of 
many  steps,  extending  across  the  whole  front.  There  were  three  rows  of 
columns  on  each  side,  of  inflnite  variety  of  colors ;  they  were  not  Doric 
in  form,  but  tall  and  slender,  and  somewhat  of  the  Ionic  order.  This 
temple  was  open  at  its  sides,  and  its  pavement  and  columns  shone  with 
a  brilliant  sparkling  gleam  amid  that  rose-colored  atmosphere. 

“  On  each  side  of  the  building  was  a  glorious  garden,  variegated  with 
water,  shrubbery,  and  flowers,  equally  dazzling  in  their  brilliancy.  The 
leaves  of  the  flowers  and  plants  were  transparent,  yet  shone  with  a  glitter 
like  the  ice-plant,  or  as  if  covered  with  frost  in  the  morning  sun.  The 
water  was  now  a  calm  and  placid  pool,  now  a  bubbling  stream,  now  a 
jet,  and  anon  a  tumbling  fall.  The  flowers  were  of  all  possible  colors,  and 
I  could  see  their  perfume  arise  from  them  and  mingle  with  the  atmosphere. 
At  the  same  time  I  could  see  the  plants  drinking  in,  through  their  leaves, 
the  life-principle  from  the  atmosphere,  and  giving  it  out  sublimated  and 
refined  as  a  perfume.  Those  plants  were  in  all  stages  of  development,  so 
that  it  seemed  as  if  spring  and  summer,  conjoined,  reigned  there  forever, 
-^here  was  every  variety  of  foliage  and  shady  trees,  now  dense,  dark  and 
cool,  and  now  sparse  and  transparent.  The  water  was  full  of  fishes, 
gamboling  in  the  joyousness  of  life  in  such  pure  waters  and  the  air  was 
full  of  birds,  rendering  it  beautiful  with  their  plumage,  and  vocal  with 
their  song.  One  bird  I  noticed  in  particular:  he  was  brovzn  and  plain  in 
look,  and  as  he  reposed  on  a  limb  of  one  of  the  trees,  he  sent  up  his  joy¬ 
ous  song,  ringing  clear  over  all  other  sounds  —  its  notes  like  the  softest 
flute,  expressive  of  happiness,  and  imparting  a  feeling  of  gladness  to  all 
around.” 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  description  is  Dr.  Dexter’s  own,  and 
that  he  has  before  him  a  panorama  of  pictures,  pictographic  imag¬ 
ery,  with  here  and  there  a  note  of  symbolism.  Such  phrases  as 
seeing  the  perfume  rising,  and  the  plants  “  drinking  in  the  life- 
principle  and  giving  it  out  subliminated  and  refined  as  a  perfume,” 
are  natural  symbolic  expressions  for  speculative  truth,  represented 


372  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 


as  apparent  fact.  All  this  will  become  clearer  in  some  later  com¬ 
ments.  The  narrative  goes  on: 

“  The  basement  of  the  temple,  I  saw,  was  prepared  and  fitted  up  for  a 
room  in  which  public  meetings  were  to  be  held.  At  one  end  of  it  was 
the  seat  of  the  presiding  spirit.  It  was  the  precise,  tomb-like  monument 
of  myself  that  I  had  seen  once  before,  on  which  was  recorded  my  age 
when  I  died.  Back  of  that,  on  the  wall,  was  a  picture  of  that  cross 
in  the  sky,  which  I  had  seen  with  its  attendant  spirit  and  its  scrolls.  Be¬ 
neath  that  picture  was  my  new  seal  painted,  and  on  each  side  two  other 
seals ;  they  consisted  of  shields  and  emblazonry.  One  had  a  cross-bar  run¬ 
ning  diagonally,  above  which  was  the  scene  of  the  good  Samaritan;  and 
below  a  bright  spirit,  who  was  lifting  a  slave  from  the  ground  and  knock¬ 
ing  off  his  chains.  The  scroll  beneath  the  shield  contained  these  words : 
‘  Love  conquers  all  things.’  ” 

This  was  Dr.  Dexter’s  coat  of  arms;  the  other  was  Mr.  Warren’s. 
It  was  quartered  by  bars  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles.  In 
one  quarter  was  a  shepherd  surrounded  by  his  flock;  he  was  re¬ 
clining  under  a  tree,  and  examining  the  starry  firmament.  In 
the  second  quarter  was  a  man  far  down  in  a  deep  pit,  examining 
the  formation  of  the  rock  and  earth.  In  the  third,  was  a  man 
reading;  and  in  the  fourth,  one  with  crucibles  and  other  chemical 
apparatus.  The  inscription  was,  “  Knowledge  is  Progressive.” 

The  description  continues  for  nearly  two  pages,  but  we  have  seen 
enough  to  understand  the  character  of  the  whole.  We  are  con¬ 
cerned  here  only  with  that  part  which  contains  internal  evidence  of 
being  symbolic.  The  symbolic  meaning  is  unconsciously  revealed 
in  the  very  contents  of  the  message.  For  instance.  Dr.  Dexter’s 
monument,  inscribed  with  his  epitaph,  is  not  a  vision  of  present 
reality,  but  a  premonition.  The  shield  and  other  figures  are  also 
symbolic.  More  especially  we  note  a  prediction  of  the  downfall 
of  slavery,  which  was  not  an  established  fact  at  the  time  of  this 
vision,  in  1853.  The  vision,  therefore,  was  not  of  actual  facts,  but 
consisted  of  images  signifying  future  events.  It  matters  not  what 
the  source  of  these  pictures  may  be;  we  are  assuming  their  spirit¬ 
istic  origin  here  only  to  indicate  that  the  symbolic  character  of  the 
pictures  is  not  affected  thereby,  while  it  is  taken  for  granted  on 
any  other  theory  of  their  source.  That  part  which  is  obviously 
symbolic  suggests  the  same  interpretation  for  the  rest. 


REVELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD  373 

We  could  go  through  the  literature  of  spiritualism  and  find  many 
examples  of  symbolic  vision.  As  the  pictographic  process  of  com¬ 
munication  is  so  common,  even  when  the  personal  identity  of  the 
discarnate  is  being  proved,  when  we  cannot  for  a  moment  suppose 
that  real  things  are  seen,  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  in  considering  such 
narratives,  the  conditions  of  that  process  with  its  inherent  symbol¬ 
ism.  This  point  can  be  brought  out  in  another  way. 

Strictly  scientific  language  is  inadequate  to  interpret  art.  We 
cannot  directly  convey  the  impressions  and  emotions  we  experience 
in  the  enjoyment  of  works  of  art.  We  have  to  describe  the  prod¬ 
uct  in  terms  that  carry  with  them  certain  emotional  values;  and, 
unless  the  recipient  has  had  experience  enough  to  read  into  the 
language  what  the  communicator  has  in  mind,  he  fails  to  get  the 
meaning.  The  descriptions  contain  words  signifying  certain  emo¬ 
tional  effects;  and,  as  we  can  communicate  with  each  other  only  in 
terms  of  sense-perception,  of  pictorial  imagery  of  some  kind,  a 
criticism  may  often  enough  seem  absurd  to  the  stickler  for  scien¬ 
tific  accuracy,  though  perfectly  intelligible  to  the  man  who  appre¬ 
ciates  art  and  the  emotional  reactions  to  beauty. 

We  can  apply  the  psycholog}^  of  art  to  our  present  problem.  If 
the  spiritual  world  be  dominantly  a  world  to  be  described  appre¬ 
ciatively,  not  scientifically,  we  may  well  understand  how  descrip¬ 
tive  accounts  have  a  symbolic  meaning  which  should  be  interpreted 
in  terms  of  emotion.  Many  of  the  revelations  of  the  spiritual 
world  characterize  it  as  dominantly  emotional  and  affectional. 
Mere  knowledge  is  secondary  among  its  interests.  Just  as  we  use 
sensuous  imagery  in  interpreting  any  work  of  art,  so  the  picto¬ 
graphic  process,  recognizing  the  difficulties  of  describing  a  spiritual 
world,  uses  such  pictures  as  will  carry  with  them  emotions  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  spiritual  life  wherever  found.  In  the  attempt  to  de¬ 
scribe  a  piece  of  music,  the  critic  or  artist  endeavors  to  make  a 
body  of  sound  intelligible  in  terms  of  visual  imagery.  A  musician 
may  call  his  composition  “  A  Rose,”  meaning  that  his  musical  work 
gives  rise  to  the  same  emotion  as  that  produced  by  a  rose.  The 
writer  who  speaks  of  “  a  symphony  of  color  ”  is  using  musical 
terms  to  describe  a  visual  effect.  The  language  cannot  be  taken 
literally;  the  appreciative  mind  must  construe  the  meaning  in  terms 


374  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

of  emotional  reactions.  The  same  principle  may  apply  to  the  ac¬ 
counts  of  the  spiritual  world.  The  pictographic  process  must  rep¬ 
resent  it  in  pictorial  images,  but  the  mind  must  see  in  them  the  emo¬ 
tional  meaning  of  the  representations,  and  ignore  the  literal  import. 

The  work  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  has  proved  attractive  to  most 
people  because  it  contains  more  description  and  philosophy  than 
most  similar  productions,  and  because  the  author  maintains  that  he 
had  read  little  or  nothing  on  the  subject.  His  “  Summer  Land  ” 
is  as  complete  a  description  as  was  ever  given  of  the  other  world 
in  terms  of  sense.  This  characteristic  arouses  at  once  the  skep¬ 
ticism  of  the  more  intelligent  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  ignorant. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  work  is  remarkable  as  a  case  for  the 
psychologist ;  but  its  literal  truth  is  another  matter. 

Since  we  have  had  no  experience  of  the  transcendental  world  it 
requires  scrutiny  and  discrimination  to  determine  what  reports  are 
acceptable  and  what  are  not.  The-  veracity  of  the  communicator 
does  not  guarantee  the  truth  of  his  statements.  We  need  to  know 
two  things  in  addition  to  his  veracity,  (i)  We  must  know  his 
competency  or  the  intelligence  of  his  judgment  in  making  his  ob¬ 
servations.  (2)  We  must  know  that  he  is  reporting  more  than 
his  individual  impressions.  When  these  two  conditions  are  fulfilled 
we  may  be  able  to  accept  reports  about  the  next  world. 

Now  when  we  add  to  the  difficulties  just  mentioned  the  further 
complications  ( i )  that  the  accounts  of  the  spiritual  world  do  not 
agree  in  their  details,  and  (2)  that  the  reactions  of  different  spirits 
may  vary  as  widely  as  do  the  esthetic  judgments  of  the  living,  we 
shall  have  abundant  reason  to  exercise  caution  before  accepting 
accounts  of  the  spiritual  world  at  their  face  value.  If  the  descrip¬ 
tions  are  highly  symbolic  and  if  they  are  determined  by  the  degree 
of  development  of  the  individual  spirit,  we  could  hardly  expect 
them  to  be  identical  or  even  consistent.  The  differences  between 
the  spiritual  and  the  physical  world  make  it  difficult  to  give  a  satis¬ 
factory  account  of  the  former.  Just  in  proportion  as  it  is  different 
from  this  life,  spirits  must  be  unable  to  describe  it  in  the  only  terms 
by  which  it  can  be  made  intelligible  to  most  people.  Just  in  pro¬ 
portion  as  it  is  like  the  physical  world  the  stories  about  it  will  be 
credible  to  the  ordinary  person  and  at  the  same  time  will  excite 


REVELATIONS  OF  THE  OTHER  WORLD  375 

the  skepticism  of  the  man  who  does  not  think  altogether  in  terms 
of  sensory  images.  The  contradictions  in  the  accounts  make  it 
easy  to  understand  why  the  intelligent  man  hesitates  to  accept  the 
revelations,  though  the  average  man  simply  selects  what  pleases 
him  and  ignores  the  rest.  The  conflict  lies  between  different  cri¬ 
teria  of  truth,  the  untrained  mind  accepting  at  its  face  value  every 
narrative  couched  in  sensory  terms,  and  the  scientific  mind  doubt¬ 
ing  everything  that  pretends  to  describe  a  spiritual  world  in  physi¬ 
cal  terms.  The  reconciliation  lies  in  the  belief  in  a  supersensible 
physical  universe  saturated  with  spirit,  whatever  view  of  spirit  we 
take,  and  in  the  belief  in  spiritual  activities  of  a  dominantly  emo¬ 
tional  type,  which  have  to  be  translated  into  sensory  terms  when 
they  are  described  to  the  living.  But  we  have  still  to  prove  the 
existence  of  such  a  state  of  affairs. 

Contradictions  in  the  statements  are  due  partly  to  the  same  causes 
which  make  the  living  differ  in  their  opinions,  and  partly  to  differ¬ 
ences  in  the  conditions  under  which  spirits  exist.  There  are  what 
we  call  the  earth-bound  spirits  who  live  in  their  sensory  memories 
and  desires.  Their  communications  must  reflect  their  own  mental 
condition  and  would  naturally  contain  just  such  stories  as  those 
which  offend  the  scientific  intelligence.  Then  there  is  the  crank, 
who  still  insists  on  teaching  us  his  doctrine  whenever  he  can  find 
a  channel  through  which  to  express  it.  It  is  probable  that  the 
earth-bound  and  the  cranks  can  communicate  more  easily  than 
can  the  more  highly  developed,  and  that  they  would  be  more  per¬ 
sistent  in  their  efforts.  Death  does  not  make  radical  changes  in 
our  natures.  We  retain  the  same  characters;  if  we  have  resisted 
progress  here  we  may  do  so  in  the  spiritual  world.  Moreover, 
many  messages  are  compounds  formed  by  two  or  more  minds  act¬ 
ing  at  the  same  time.  It  is  probable  that  this  condition  exercises  a 
more  distorting  influence  on  results  than  do  the  messages  of  the 
earth-bound.  But  we  have  to  reckon  with  so  many  obstacles  to  the 
intelligibility  of  the  messages,  including  their  frequently  symbolic 
nature,  that  we  have  to  be  exceedingly  wary  in  the  acceptance  of 
any  revelation. 

The  manifold  difficulties  which  I  have  discussed  above  will  al¬ 
ways  stare  us  in  the  face,  though  we  may  be  forced  to  admit  that 


376  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

there  is  some  basis  of  truth  in  the  revelations.  Only  the  common 
elements  in  the  total  mass  of  conflicting  accounts  can  be  accepted, 
and  even  these  only  on  the  assurance  that  they  are  not  reflections 
of  normal  ideas  and  imaginings.  We  must  be  sure  that  the  mind 
Avhich  delivers  them  has  not  known  any  of  the  ideas  and  theories 
of  spiritualism,  if  we  are  to  exclude  the  influence  of  conscious  and 
subconscious  knowledge  on  the  statements.  To  secure  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  spiritual  world  by  such  a  process  of  sifting  will 
require  many  years  of  investigation  and  study.  We  are  in  no  posi¬ 
tion  at  present  to  provide  the  scientific  mind  with  a  clear  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  transcendental  world  nor  with  any  simple  criterion  of 
validity  for  the  communications  concerning  that  world. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


REINCARNATION 


The  doctrine  of  reincarnation  is  one  form  of  belief  in 
survival  after  death.  We  meet  with  it  in  early  Buddhism, 
in  early  Greek  philosophy,  among  the  physicists  or  so- 
called  materialists  of  the  Pre-Socratic  period  and  again  in  Plato. 
The  early  materialists  are  represented  as  believers  in  survival  in  any 
form  only  by  the  more  exhaustive  historians  of  the  period;  and 
even  they  mention  the  belief  merely  for  the  sake  of  completeness, 
as  if  it  were  an  irrelevant  detail  of  the  system.  But  it  was  too  im¬ 
portant  an  element  in  the  philosophy  of  Plato  to  be  ignored.  He 
seems  to  have  been  the  only  prominent  philosopher  of  Greece  in 
the  intellectual  period  who  had  the  hardihood  to  defend  it.  The 
theosophists  of  modern  times  have  advocated  it :  most  of  them 
derive  their  belief  from  Buddhism.  The  idea  prevailed  in  other 
religious  and  philosophic  sects  of  India,  either  growing  out  of 
Buddhism  or  out  of  the  systems  that  preceded  Buddhism. 

I  do  not  intend  here  to  go  into  the  history  of  the  doctrine. 
I  mention  its  antiquity  primarily  to  show  that  it  is  not  the  result 
of  modern  scientific  progress.  But  its  value  must  rest  on  facts  and 
not  on  antiquity  or  authority.  I  have  discussed  it  in  another  work, 
“  The  Border-land  of  Psychic  Research.”  I  shall  here  take  up 
only  additional  matters,  which  have  become  important  through 
the  revival  of  interest  in  the  doctrine  by  the  theosophists. 

In  general,  reincarnation  means  that  the  soul  after  death  comes 
back  again  to  the  earthly  life  in  another  physical  body.  It  assumes 
that  the  materialistic  theory  of  consciousness  is  not  true ;  either 
taking  the  existence  of  a  soul  for  granted,  or  adducing  the  facts 
of  normal  consciousness  and  experience  as  sufficient  to  justify  the 
belief  in  the  existence  of  a  soul.  Its  doctrine  of  re-embodiment  or 
transmigration  as  a  form  of  survival,  differs  in  certain  details  from 
the  Christian  and  other  similar  views.  It  does  not  accept  the  bodily 

377 


378  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

resurrection;  perhaps  advanced  Christianity  does  not  do  so  any 
longer,  though  many  Christians  still  cling  to  it.  This  theory  im¬ 
plies  that  the  soul  retains  its  identity  when  it  re-occupies  a  body, 
either  the  old  one  resurrected  or  a  new  one  created  for  the  pur¬ 
pose.  But  reincarnation  does  not  assume  any  resurrection.  It 
assumes  that  the  soul,  without  memory  of  the  past,  comes  back  and 
occupies  a  body  created  by  ordinary  sexual  union.  This  denial  of 
memory  is  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  the  doctrine,  as  held 
by  most  theosophists  to-day  and  in  the  past.  If  faced  with  the 
disadvantages  of  the  loss  of  memory,  theosophists  maintain  that 
after  various  reincarnations  this  memory  of  all  past  experiences  is 
recovered.  It  is  lost  as  a  consequence  of  the  individual’s  mistake 
and  sins,  and  is  restored  when  his  “  karma  ”  or  probationary  dis¬ 
cipline  is  complete  ;  after  his  various  transmigrations. 

Now  it  must  be  said  that  this  belief  rests  on  metaphysics  alone. 
It  has  no  scientific  foundation  whatever.  Some  venture  to  adduce 
facts  to  support  it,  but  these  will  not  bear  the  slightest  examina¬ 
tion  as  evidence.  For  instance,  some  will  tell  us  that  they  can  re¬ 
member  a  previous  existence.  But  they  do  not  reckon  with  illusions 
of  memory.  We  sometimes  recall  something  which  we  locate  in 
a  certain  time  and  place,  but  find  later  that  this  location  was  wrong. 
When  the  total  experience  is  recalled  we  find  that  we  are  dealing 
with  two  events  connected  only  by  similarity.  We  confused  them 
because  of  the  imperfection  of  the  recall.  This  imperfect  recall 
will  explain  most  of  the  alleged  instances  recollection  of  a  prenatal 
pa^. 

Other  facts  adduced  in  support  of  reincarnation  can  be  explained 
as  mediumistic  phenomena.  That  is,  discarnate  personalities  may 
produce  in  the  minds  of  psychics  the  feeling  of  long  past  time 
or  of  previous  existence  by  the  transmission,  telepathically  per¬ 
haps,  of  their  own  feelings  and  states  of  mind.  These  would  nat¬ 
urally  enough  be  interpreted  as  evidence  of  reincarnation.  But 
when  we  find  that  they  are  memories  transmitted  from  the  dis¬ 
carnate  to  the  living  mind,  their  claims  as  evidence  are  nullified. 
The  sense  of  recognizing  a  place  which  we  are  seeing  for  the  first 
time  is  another  type  of  fact  like  the  one  just  considered,  except 
that  it  involves  space  instead  of  time.  It  too  can  be  explained 


REINCARNATION 


379 


either  as  an  illusion  of  memory  or  as  clairvoyance.  Either  hypo¬ 
thesis  nullifies  the  value  of  the  facts  as  evidence  for  reincarnation. 

I  allude  thus  briefly  to  the  alleged  evidence  for  transmigration, 
in  order  to  show  that  it  has  no  scientific  standing.  Its  metaphysical 
character  is  another  matter ;  I  have  eliminated  its  scientific  claims 
in  order  to  show  that  it  is  only  a  metaphysical  theory.  It  may  be 
true  or  false,  but  it  cannot  be  assumed  to  be  true  without  evidence : 
for  jnet^physical  theories  are  to-day  discredited  unless  they  can 
produce  evidence  in  their  support.  They  are  legitimate  enough  as 
imaginary  possibilities,  but  woe  unto  the  man  who  asserts  them  to 
be  facts.  What  it  is  that  can  recommend  the  doctrine  of  reincarna¬ 
tion  to  its  believers  is  difficult  to  understand.  It  contains  nothing 
desirable  and  nothing  ethical.  To  be  sure,  its  desirability  or  un- 
desirabilitv  has  nothing  to  do  with  its  truth  or  falsity.  It  might 
be  true,  though  very  undesirable,  and  it  might  be  false,  though  very 
desirable.  But  as  it  is  a  metaphysical  theory,  we  have  a  right  to 
test  its  relation  to  practical  life  and  the  native  instincts  of  man, 
when  we  cannot  find  scientific  evidence  to  prove  it. 

Reincarnation  is  not  desirable,  because  it  does  not  satisfy  the  only 
instinct  that  makes  survival  of  any  kind  interesting,  namely,  the  in¬ 
stinct  to  preserve  the  consciousness  of  personal  identity.  This  is 
denied  to  the  process  until  its  end  and  that  is  never  in  sight! 
Moreover,  assertion  of  even  this  return  of  memory  is  purely  arbi¬ 
trary.  Man’s  only  interest  in  survival  is  for  the  persistence  of  his 
personal  identity.  It  is  a  form  of  the  impulse  towards  self-preser¬ 
vation,  which  is  fundamental  to  all  the  acquisitions  of  experience 
and  character  in  this  life.  A  future  life  must  be  the  continuity  of 
this  consciousness  or  it  is  not  a  life  to  us  at  all. 

Moreover,  there  is  nothing  ethical  in  the  doctrine.  The  ab¬ 
solutely  fundamental  condition  of  all  ethics  is  memory  and  the 
retention  of  personal  identity,  and  memory  and  personal  identity 
are  excluded  from  the  process  oj  reincarnation.  That  you  cannot 
maintain  a  theory  of  responsibility  in  any  existence  without  memory 
is  a  truism  in  ethics  and  even  in  our  civil  courts.  If  our  personal 
identity  were  changed,  we  could  not  be  held  responsible  for  any¬ 
thing  we  did.  If  we  lost  our  memory  every  five  minutes  we  should 
be  regarded  as  insane,  and  crime  could  not  be  ascribed  to  us.  In 


38o  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

cases  of  alternating  personality,  punishment  might  be  meted  out 
to  the  personality  performing  the  act,  but  this  restraint  could  not 
apply  to  the  other  personality.  The  result  is  that  cases  of  dissocia¬ 
tion  and  change  of  personality  are  subjects  for  the  physician  and  not 
the  police. 

The  doctrine  of  reincarnation  has  to  face  this  large  question. 
We  cannot  apply  to  any  future  life  the  categories  of  the  present,  un¬ 
less  personal  identity  be  assumed.  Memory  from  one  stage  to  an¬ 
other  is  necessary  to  the  continuance  of  existence.  “  Karma  ” 
without  memory  is  retribution  minus  all  grounds  for  it,  abstracting 
everything  that  makes  it  rational. 

How  then  did  such  a  doctrine  originate  ?  What  could  have  given 
rise  to  such  a  theory?  Plato  may  be  forgiven  because  we  know 
his  poetic  and  literary  instincts.  But  there  was  some  reason  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  belief,  and  we  may  well  ask  what  this  reason 
was.  Even  fantastic  views,  when  persistently  and  seriously  held, 
have  some  reason  for  their  existence ;  and  the  doctrine  of  reincarna¬ 
tion  is  too  old  and  too  insistent  not  to  have  had  some  reason  for  its 
origin. 

If  the  doctrine  could  be  defined  as  meaning  the  survival  of  con¬ 
sciousness  in  the  spiritual  body,  it  would  be  consistent  not  only 
with  some  forms  of  spiritualism,  but  also  with  Christianity.  But 
usually  its  advocates  deny  this  view.  Some  of  them  are  as  much 
opposed  to  spiritistic  theories  as  are  the  skeptics,  though  many 
regard  psychic  research  as  a  stepping  stone  to  their  own  philosophy. 
They  often  admit  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  body,  but  do  not  con¬ 
ceive  the  relation  of  personality  or  consciousness  to  it  as  one  of 
transmigration.  If  they  could  conceive  that  relation  as  the  trans¬ 
fer  of  the  present  consciousness  to  a  spiritual  body  there  would  be 
no  logical,  no  ethical,  and  no  scientific  difficulties  in  the  way  of  that 
conception.  But  this  would  be  giving  up  their  denial  that  memory 
endures  throughout  the  process  of  reincarnation;  and  few,  if  any, 
theosophists  will  admit  the  conception  just  defined. 

It  was  this  idea  with  which  Professor  James  was  playing  when 
he  tried  to  defend  the  possibility  of  immortality  by  the  doctrine  of 
transmissive  functions  of  the  brain.  He  did  not  call  his  theory  re¬ 
incarnation,  for  to  do  so  would  at  once  have  discredited  his  view 


REINCARNATION 


381 

in  the  minds  of  scientists,  if  only  because  of  associations  and  im¬ 
plications  which  he  did  not  admit  and  which  the  theosophists  hold. 
Professor  James,  instead  of  using  the  results  of  psychic  research  to 
prove  survival  after  death,  confined  himself  to  physiological  and 
psychological  arguments,  maintaining  the  materialistic  view  of  the 
nature  of  consciousness.  Pie  admitted,  with  the  materialist,  that 
consciousness  is  a  function  of  the  brain.  But,  in  order  to  avoid  the 
materialist’s  conclusion  he  tried  to  distinguish  between  what  he 
called  transmissive  and  productive  functions  of  the  brain.  He  did 
not  make  the  distinction  very  clear  or  tenable  in  relation  to  facts, 
but  he  used  the  idea  consistently  enough.  By  productive  functions 
of  the  brain  he  meant  such  as  are  so  organically  connected  with  it 
that  they  perish  when  the  body  dies.  He  imagined  that  conscious¬ 
ness,  however,  might  be  a  function  that  could  be  transmitted  from 
the  brain  to  some  other  structure,  whether  the  transmission  be  con¬ 
ceived  as  reincarnation  with  or  without  the  retention  of  personal 
identity.  He  said  nothing  about  transmigration  of  the  soul  to 
other  human  bodies,  and  he  probably  would  not  have  tolerated  the 
idea.  Neither  did  he  say  anything  about  the  question  whether 
any  “  spiritual,”  “  astral,”  or  ethereal  organisms  existed  without 
any  connection  with  a  body.  He  left  us  to  infer  that  they  might 
be  formed  or  created  for  the  transmitted  consciousness  after  death. 
But  the  notion  of  transmission  is  not  necessary  to  spiritism.  Con¬ 
sciousness  either  is  now  a  function  of  the  “  spiritual  body,”  whether 
spatial  or  spaceless,  or  is  so  closely  associated  with  such  an  organ¬ 
ism  that  it  goes  with  it  at  death,  without  the  need  of  “  transmission.” 
But  to  as.sume  “  transmission,”  as  Professor  James  did,  is  to  as¬ 
sume  that  the  “  ethereal  organism  ”  is  not  now  associated  with 
consciousness,  but  awaits  the  reception  of  it  when  it  has  left  the 
brain. 

This  view  has  the  merit  of  forcing  the  materialist  to  argue  the 
case  from  his  own  premises,  but  it  is  totally  without  evidence.  It 
is  quite  as  a  priori  as  any  mediaeval  theology,  and  therefore  is  in¬ 
consistent  with  the  “  radical  empiricism  ”  which  was  the  funda¬ 
mental  belief  of  Professor  James. 

When,  in  the  light  of  psychic  research,  we  examine  the  early 
theories  of  animism  and  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation  as  held 


382  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

among  the  early  Greek  philosophers,  even  the  materialists  Empe¬ 
docles  and  Democritus,  we  may  discover  how  the  theory  of  rein¬ 
carnation  originated.  Primitive  animism  was  bound  up  with  the 
belief  in  reincarnation,  but  it  was  not  clearly  worked  out  into  a 
logical  and  consistent  philosophy.  We  find  in  animism  only  the 
seeds  of  the  doctrine,  in  the  naive  ideas  of  ignorant  people  with  a 
penchant  for  explaining  things.  But  when  we  recognize  unde¬ 
veloped  spiritualism  in  this  primitive  animism,  we  find  a  clue  to 
the  origin  of  the  theory  of  reincarnation. 

Spiritualism  based  upon  communication  with  the  dead  assumes 
the  return  of  the  discarnate  spirit  to  the  earthly  life ;  and  its  tem¬ 
porary  occupation  of  a  human  body  in  order  to  effect  the  com¬ 
munication.  This  return  might  be  called  an  incarnation.  Com¬ 
municators  have  often  said  that  their  return  is  like  getting  into 
the  living  body  and  living  over  again  in  that  organism.  Un- 
philosophic  ages  might  develop  this  circumstance  into  a  theory  of 
reincarnation,  after  they  had  forgotten  the  conditions  which  gave 
rise  to  the  original  meaning  of  the  term.  Such  development  is 
very  frequent  in  the  history  of  religious  and  philosophic  beliefs. 
For  instance,  we  cannot  read  the  New  Testament  in  the  light  of 
psychic  research  and  the  meaning  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  words, 
without  noting  that  the  resurrection  w'as  originally  only  a  theory 
of  survival  based  upon  apparitions.  Long  before  Christianity 
arose,  anastasis,  the  Greek  word  for  resurrection,  in  one  of  its 
meanings,  signified  the  appearance  of  apparitions.  The  doctrine 
had  been  discussed  between  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees  be¬ 
fore  Christ  was  said  to  have  risen.  The  Greeks  had  been  long 
familiar  with  the  idea,  which  developed  into  the  doctrine  of  the 
bodily  resurrection  only  after  the  facts  on  which  it  w'as  based  were 
discarded  or  forgotten,  perhaps  partly  because  of  the  confusion 
attending,  on  the  one  hand,  the  conceptions  of  matter  and  spirit,  and, 
on  the  other,  the  real  meaning  of  the  “  spiritual  body  ”  of  St.  Paul. 
A  similar  development  is  apparent  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
It  meant  something  intelligible  with  reference  to  the  Greek  con¬ 
ception  of  personality  as  simply  a  representation  of  characteristics 
in  a  subject,  not  the  subject  itself.  When  this  meaning  was  lost 
and  the  terminology  retained  as  a  dogma,  philosophers  and  theolog- 


REINCARNATION 


383 

ians  felt  the  necessity  of  trying  to  explain  it  by  concocting  pre¬ 
posterous  arguments  to  bolster  up  a  phrase  that  had  lost  its  primi¬ 
tive  significance. 

In  some  such  way  we  can  conceive  the  origin  of  the  doctrine 
of  reincarnation,  without  supposing  that  it  was  fabricated  by  the 
imagination  without  any  facts  whatever  upon  which  to  work. 
Both  mediumistic  phenomena  and  the  statements  of  communicators 
suggest  something  like  reincarnation,  though  they  do  not  support 
the  developed  system.  They  show  that  returning  to  communicate 
involves  .something  like  the  old  relation  of  the  soul  to  the  body, 
which  for  them  might  be  called  “  reincarnation,”  though  not  as  a 
mode  of  ”  karma  ”  or  punishment. 

This  latter  doctrine,  a  concomitant  of  reincarnation,  may  have 
arisen  from  certain  phenomena  associated  with  what  are  called 
earth-bound  spirits.  These  are  persons  so  obsessed  with  their 
earthly  life  that  it  is  often  difficult  for  them  to  get  away  from 
their  former  interests.  It  is  represented  in  some  communica¬ 
tions  that  this  condition  may  be  remedied  by  bringing  earth-bound 
spirits  into  contact  with  living  organisms,  especially  psychics,  in 
order  to  remove  the  fixed  ideas  and  the  attachment  to  earthly 
memories  and  experiences.  In  this  way  they  work-  out  their  salva¬ 
tion,  so  to  speak:  and  any  mention  of  this  state  of  affairs  in  com¬ 
munications  would  call  to  mind  the  doctrine  of  expiation  and  pun¬ 
ishment. 

But  until  reincarnation  can  adduce  scientific  facts  in  its  support, 
it  cannot  rival  ps3'chic  research.  Scientific  doctrines  always  pro¬ 
duce  evidence,  and  do  not  extend  their  theories  or  explanations  be¬ 
yond  facts.  Metaphysical  speculations  are  possible;  and  are  the 
delight  of  certain  types  of  mind,  but  they  are  not  substitutes  for 
facts.  All  that  scientific  men  ask  of  the  reincarnationist  is  that  he 
produce  satisfactory  evidence  for  transmigration ;  until  he  does  so, 
the  theory  cannot  claim  to  be  based  on  fact.  It  is  only  fair  to 
give  it  a  hearing  in  this  connection  and  to  eliminate  all  suspicion  of 
prejudice  against  it,  I  can  only  say  that,  if  proper  evidence  be  ad¬ 
duced  for  it,  I  shall  admit  it,  though  I  should  have  to  regard  the 
cosmos  as  irrational.  The  probable  origin  of  the  theory  of  re¬ 
incarnation  explains  the  element  of  truth  which  it  contains.  But 


384  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

_the  survival  of  personal  identity,  adequately  supported  by  facts, 
.  contradicts  the  main  doctrine  of  the  reincarnationist. 

It  is  true  that  communications,  or  what  purport  to  be  com¬ 
munications,  from  the  dead  assert  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation. 
But  we  must  remember  that  there  is  no  agreement  in  communica- 
itions  of  the  dead  about  their  life.  The  disagreement  is  as  great 
as  it  is  about  philosophic  views  among  the  living.  Perhaps  there 
is  no  literature  in  which  contradictory  conceptions  of  spiritual  ex¬ 
istence  are  more  numerous  than  in  the  real  or  alleged  descriptions 
in  spiritualistic  records.  This  inconsistency  prevents  our  uncritical 
acceptance  of  these  records  as  final  on  any  point.  It  goes  to  prove 
that  3ve  are  receding  only  statements  of  opinion,  not  facts,  from 
communicators,  if  we  accept  the  statements  as  communications  from 
a  transcendental  world.  Some  communicators  deny  the  reincarna¬ 
tion.  Consequently,  when  we  consider  that  the  retention  of  per¬ 
sonal  identity  includes  retention  of  the  views  that  we  held  when 
living,  especially  if  we  remain  earth-bound  and  unadjusted  to  the 
new  environment  for  a  time;  when  we  consider  subconscious  dis¬ 
tortion  and  coloring  of  messages  by  the  medium,  especially  if  he 
normally  believes  in  reincarnation ;  when  we  allow  for  misinter¬ 
pretation  of  both  facts  and  messages;  and  when  we  recognize  the 
fragmentary  character  of  all  messages  and  the  limitations  of  the 
medium,  we  shall  quite  understand  that  communications  from  the 
dead,  whether  for  or  against  reincarnation,  are  not  to  be  accepted 
at  their  superficial  value.  The  contradictions  require  us  either  to 
distrust  all  communications  on  this  subject  or  to  reconstruct  the 
messages  in  the  light  of  an  extensive  study  of  all  the  recorded  state¬ 
ments. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

OBSESSION 


The  Christian  church  should  be  as  familiar  with  obsession 
as  it  is  with  the  divinity  of  Christ,  miracles,  the  im¬ 
maculate  conception,  inspiration,  baptism,  and  other  doc¬ 
trines:  for  the  existence  of  evil  spirits  affecting  the  living  is  as 
clearly  taught  in  the  New  Testament,  and  implied  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  as  any  doctrine  there  expounded.  But  the  church  has  repudi¬ 
ated  belief  in  “  witchcraft,”  which  it  cannot  escape  save  by  accept¬ 
ing  the  verdict  of  science  instead  of  revelation.  It  has  reduced  the 
Biblical  cases  of  obsession  to  hysteria,  epilepsy,  paranoia  and  simi¬ 
lar  maladies,  thus  disposing  of  facts  which  we  might  easily  be¬ 
lieve  by  its  own  doctrine  of  the  “  communion  of  the  saints  ” :  for  we 
can  hardly  admit  that  evil  spirits  do  not  know  the  method  of  com¬ 
munication  which  the  “  saints  ”  practice.  So  we  should  have  no 
difficulty  in  forcing  all  believers  in  the  New  Testament  to  believe 
in  obsession  and  to  set  about  mastering  what  it  implies. 

Nevertheless,  obsession  is  not  lightly  to  be  believed.  It  is  quite 
as  conceivable  as  ordinary  communication  with  the  dead,  but  it  is 
not  so  easily  proved.  In  our  search  for  scientific  proof  of  survival 
we  have  been  dealing  with  honest  personalities,  ready  to  make  con¬ 
cessions  and  to  supply  evidence  of  their  identity.  But  experience 
has  shown  that  mischievous  personalities  are  desirous  of  conceal¬ 
ing  instead  of  revealing  their  identity.  In  default  of  evidence  to 
the  contrary,  we  should  have  to  accept  the  orthodox  verdict  of 
medicine  and  psychiatry,  which  explain  obsessions  as  cases  of  dual 
or  multiple  personality,  hysteria,  or  some  form  of  insanity.  It 
required  ten  years  of  investigation,  after  I  had  admitted  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  spirits  is  credible,  to  convince  me  of  the  possibility  of 
obsession:  then  followed  some  years  of  work  to  accumulate  the 
facts  which  make  it  scientifically  probable. 

Most  people  are  familiar  with  the  campaign  of  the  church  and 

.sS.s 


386  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  law  against  belief  in  witchcraft  throughout  the  Western  world; 
the  medical  explanation  was  sufficient,  if  not  to  eliminate  the 
phenomena,  at  least  to  eradicate  the  belief  in  obsession.  But,  in 
reporting  on  some  of  the  investigations  in  the  Piper  case.  Professor 
■  James  said  that,  though  hesitating  to  accept  the  spiritistic  theory, 
he  was  certain  that  belief  in  demoniac  possession  would  have  its  in- 
nings  again.  He  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  report  on  the  Thor^- 
son-Gifford  case  published  in  the  American  Proceedings;  it  was 
that  case  which  overcame  my  resistance  to  the  idea  of  obsession, 
though  I  felt  and  said  tliat  it  alone  was  hardly  adequate  evidence. 

There  can  be  no  a  priori  argument  against  obsession  after  the 
existence  of  discarnate  spirits  in  any  form  has  been  proved  or  even 
shown  to  be  possible  or  probable.  The  process  employed  to  es¬ 
tablish  the  personal  identity  of  spirits  may  well  be  used  by  mis¬ 
chievous  or  ignorant  personalities  in  order  to  disturb  the  normal 
life  of  the  living.  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  sane  and  intelligent 
spirits  are  the  only  ones  to  exert  influence  from  a  transcendental 
world.  If  they  can  act  on  the  living  there  is  no  reason  why  others 
cannot  do  so  as  well.  The  process  in  either  case  would  be  the 
same:  we  should  have  to  possess  adequate  proof  that  nature  puts 
more  restrictions  upon  ignorance  and  evil  in  the  next  life  than  in 
this,  in  order  to  establish  the  certainty  that  mischievous  personali¬ 
ties  do  not  or  cannot  perform  nefarious  deeds.  The  objection 
that  such  a  doctrine  makes  the  world  seem  evil  applies  equally  to 
the  situation  in  the  present  life. 

Obsession,  a  term  used  by  psychiatry  to  denote  fixed  ideas,  is 
employed  by  psychic  researchers  to  denote  the  abnormal  influence 
of  spirits  on  the  living.  It  does  not  mean  ordinary  mediumship, 
which  either  may  occur  without  disturbing  normal  life  or  may 
be  a  merely  temporary  interruption  of  that  normal  life.  It  repre¬ 
sents  a  dissociation  of  functions,  varying  from  the  slightest  dis¬ 
turbance  of  normal  personality  to  complete  displacement.  But  in 
all  cases  it  represents  an  influence  foreign  to  the  organism  instead  of 
within  it,  due  to  the  action  of  a  discarnate  spirit  or  spirits,  whether 
the  influence  be  voluntary  or  involuntary.  The  process  by  which 
this  influence  is  exercised  may  be  the  same  as  that  which  is  em¬ 
ployed  to  communicate  desirable  messages,  but  it  is  conducted  either 


OBSESSION 


387 

with  a  very  different  purpose  or  as  the  result  of  laws  which  happen 
to  involve  ignorant  spirits  in  toils  from  which  they  sometimes  can¬ 
not  easily  escape. 

The  phenomena  which  I  have  ultimately  come  to  think  are  due  to 
foreign  action,  do  not  appear  to  be  evidence  of  any  such  invasions. 
They  are  not  like  the  facts  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  regard 
as  evidence  of  the  existence  of  spirits  or  of  supernormal  knowledge. 
They  appear  to  be  morbid  states  of  the  subject  afflicted.  Many 
cases  of  hysteria,  of  dementia  precox,  of  paranoia,  of  manic  de¬ 
pressive  insanity,  and  of  dual  or  multiple  personality  do  not  show 
any  superficial  indications  of  spirit  invasion.  The  psychiatrist  has 
been  quite  right  in  refusing  to  diagnose  them  as  obsessions.  Cases 
of  dual  and  multiple  personality  immediately  suggest  obsessions, 
because  of  the  dissociation  between  the  personalities.  But  the  lack 
of  evidence  of  supernormal  knowledge  and  of  the  identity  of  the 
spirits  in  some,  if  not  in  all,  of  these  cases,  at  first  prevented  the 
application  of  a  spiritistic  explanation  to  them. 

But  I  found  a  way  to  supply  this  evidence  by  the  method  of 
cross-reference.  I  take  the  patient  to  a  ps3xhic  under  conditions 
that  exclude  from  the  psychic  all  normal  knowledge  of  the  situa¬ 
tion,  and  see  what  happens.  If  the  same  phenomena  that  occur 
in  the  patient  are  repeated  through  the  medium:  if  I  am  able  to 
establish  the  identity  of  the  personalities  affecting  the  patient :  or 
if  I  can  obtain  indubitably  supernormal  information  connecting  the 
patient  with  the  statements  made  through  the  psychic,  I  have  reason 
to  regard  the  mental  phenomena  observed  in  the  patient  as  of  ex¬ 
ternal  origin.  While  the  experiences  of  the  patient  may  not  in  them¬ 
selves  be  evidence  of  the  supernormal  or  of  foreign  invasion,  the 
repetition  of  the  same  experiences  through  the  psychic,  who  is  igno¬ 
rant  of  them,  establishes  their  supernormal  character  without  ques¬ 
tion.  In  a  number  of  cases,  persons  whose  condition  would  ordina¬ 
rily  be  described  as  due  to  hysteria,  dual,  or  multiple  personality,  de¬ 
mentia  precox,  paranoia,  or  some  other  form  of  mental  disturbance, 
showed  unmistakable  indications  of  invasion  by  foreign  and  dis- 
carnate  agencies. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  these  invasions  were  the  pri¬ 
mary  cause  of  the  trouble.  Organic  lesions  sometimes  open  the  way 


388  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

to  all  sorts  of  other  disorders.  Functional  disturbances  may  be 
due  to  invasions  of  the  discarnate,  but  in  some  instances  these  in¬ 
fluences  were  preceded  by  organic  derangements  or  by  accidents. 
The  hypothesis  of  obsession  does  not  set  aside  physiological  causes. 

It  designates  only  a  concomitant  cause  or  disturbance  in  the  situa¬ 
tion,  unless  in  certain  types  of  purely  functional  trouble  the  dis¬ 
carnate  be  primary  and  sufficient  cause.  Obsession  is  not  incom- 
patible  with  hysteria,  dual  or  multiple  personality,  and  the  like. 

It  only  adds  to  the  complications  of  the  phenomena  and  may  lead  to 
the  consideration  of  more  causes  than  have  hitherto  been  recomized.  ; 

^  II 

We  do  not  need  accept  the  spiritistic  hypothesis  in  order  to  admit  I 
the  possibility  of  obsession.  If  w’e  believe  in  telepathy,  we  believe  ; 
in  a  process  which  makes  possible  the  invasion  of  personality  by  | 
some  one  at  a  distance.  Telepathy  not  only  involves  the  transmis¬ 
sion  of  thoughts  from  one  person  to  another,  but  very  distinctly  j 
implies  that  these  thoughts  can  exercise  a  causal  influence  on  the  I 
percipient.  Psychology  assumes  that  only  physical  stimuli,  through 
the  intermediation  of  the  body,  can  affect  the  mind.  But  telepathy  i 
assumes  that  one  mind  affects  another.  This  very  supposition  con-  ; 
tains  the  possibility  of  all  that  we  observe  in  obsession,  if  it  be  t 
proved  to  exist.  Consequently  there  is  no  need  of  insisting  that 
spirits  are  the  sole  agents  in  obsession.  We  might  point  out  that 
there  would  be  no  hope  for  a  cure  if  telepathy  caused  the  obsession,  , 
as  we  might  never  be  able  to  find  the  personality  guilty  of  producing  ; 
the  effect  on  the  patient,  and  so  would  not  be  in  a  position  to  exor-  - 
cize  him  or  to  teach  him  to  avoid  using  his  influence.  Telepathy  ■ 
thus  used  would  be  Mrs.  Eddy’s  “  malicious  animal  mag-netism,” 
which  is  only  obsession  disguised  so  as  not  to  imply  the  spiritistic 
theory,  which  she  once  believed  and  later  rejected.  But  such  an 
explanation  represents  the  malady  as  incurable,  since  on  this 
hypothesis  we  cannot  get  at  the  causes.  On  the  spiritistic  theory  it 
is  possible  to  find  the  causes  and  to  deal  with  them. 

But  examination  of  the  actual  facts  will  show  not  only  that  tele¬ 
pathy  is  wholly  irrelevant  to  the  problem,  but  also  that  only  spirit¬ 
istic  agencies  rationally  explain  the  phenomena,  while  the  admission 
of  the  existence  of  spirits  on  other  evidence  prepares  the  way, 
more  definitely  than  does  telepathy,  for  acceptance  of  the  possibility 


OBSESSION  389 

of  obsession.  The  whole  case  will  rest  upon  the  special  nature  of 
the  facts  obtainable  in  support  of  the  hypothesis. 

If  we  could  interpret  every  case  of  psychic  invasion  as  obsession, 
the  case  would  be  won  in  all  instances  where  the  supernormal  is  dis¬ 
coverable.  It  would  make  the  term  synonymous  with  mediumship; 
perhaps  in  principle  they  really  are  the  same.  But  the  term  has 
usually  been  confined  to  those  cases  which  do  not  show  the  usual 
type  of  evidence  for  spirit  invasion.  The  term  denominates  ab¬ 
normal  cases,  in  which  the  dissociation  and  disintegration  of  normal 
life  has  been  so  great  as  thoroughly  to  demoralize  it.  This  is  not 
true  of  what  may  be  called  normal  mediumship.  There  is  no  hard 
and  fast  line  between  the  two  types,  except  the  application  of  the 
term  obsession  to  cases  that  do  not  in  themselves  contain  evidence 
for  the  supernormal  and  that  are  characterized  by  clear  and  dis¬ 
tinct  evidence  of  the  abnormal. 

Now  as  the  supernormal  is  not  superficially  apparent  in  these 
cases,  we  cannot  assume  them  to  be  instanees  of  obsession  unless 
we  ean  produce  evidence  that  the  ordinary  medical  diagnosis  is 
either  incorrect  or  imperfect.  Mrs.  Piper,  Mrs.  Smead,  Mrs. 
Chenoweth,  Mrs.  Verrall,  Mrs.  Holland  and  others  gave  unmis¬ 
takable  evidence  for  the  supernormal,  which  could  be  proved  by 
very  simple  methods.  All  we  had  to  do  w'as  to  take  strangers  to 
them  and  record  the  subsequent  events.  But  cases  of  hysteria  and 
of  dual  or  multiple  personality  furnished  no  such  revelations  of 
the  personal  identity  of  the  dead.  Hence  we  had  either  to  contrive 
a  new  method  of  experiment  or  to  surrender  the  diagnosis  to 
psychiatry. 

The  method  of  experiment  adopted,  when  the  influence  of  dis- 
carnate  spirits  was  suspected,  was  that  of  cross-reference.  If  the 
same  phenomena  that  had  occurred  in  the  patient  were  repeated 
through  the  psychic,  and  if  this  repetition  was  accompanied  by  un¬ 
mistakable  evidence  of  supernormal  knowledge  relevant  to  the  case, 
there  would  be  reason  at  least  to  raise  the  question  of  obsession.  If 
the  same  personalities  as  those  constituting  the  dual  or  multiple 
personalities  were  manifest  in  a  trained  psychic,  we  should  have 
strong  evidence  that  they  were  not  in  the  first  instance  merely  sub¬ 
jective  creations.  This  sort  of  experiment  was  tried  for  the  pur- 


390  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

pose  of  seeing  whether  we  could  secure  evidence  of  external  person¬ 
ality  in  what  seemed  to  be  merely  an  abnormal  state  in  the  patient. 
We  have  tried  this  experiment  in  a  number  of  cases  with  the  same 
result;  a  similar  result  never  manifested  itself  when  normal  per¬ 
sons  were  the  sitters  or  subjects  of  experiment. 

The  case  which  first  suggested  obsession  to  me  was  that  of  Mr, 
Thompson.  The  invading  agent  was  Mr.  Gifford.  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son,  after  a  period  in  which  he  felt  compelled  to  paint  in  Gifford’s 
style,  was  unable  to  resume  his  profession  as  a  silversmith.  It 
nauseated  him.  This  indicated  to  me  that  the  invasion  had  brought 
about  some  sort  of  organic  alteration  in  his  interests  and  physiologi¬ 
cal  habits.  The  persistent  invasion  of  Gififord  to  accomplish  his 
purpose  and  the  organic  alteration  of  the  man’s  habits  and  tastes 
suggested,  though  it  did  not  prove,  obsession.  It  made  me  resolve 
to  investigate  similar  cases  until  I  should  have  ascertained  what  was 
going  on.  In  the  experiences  of  Mr.  Thompson  there  was  no  evi¬ 
dence  that  would  convince  the  scientific  man,  especially  the  student 
of  abnormal  psychology,  that  he  was  the  subject  of  discarnate  in¬ 
vasion.  Indeed  two  physicians  diagnosed  the  case  as  paranoia,  and 
one  of  them,  without  offering  to  cure  it,  expressed  a  desire  to  watch 
the  progress  of  the  malady.  But  cross-reference  proved  very 
clearly  that  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Gififord,  whatever  the  motive,  was  be¬ 
hind  the  phenomena;  and  the  abnormality  of  the  effect  on  the  pro¬ 
fession  of  Mr.  Thompson  suggested  that  something  more  than 
mediumship  was  manifested. 

Soon  afterwards  I  came  across  three  other  cases  which  every 
psychiatrist  would  diagnose  as  hysteria,  two  of  them  perhaps  as 
incipient  paranoia.  One  of  these  persons  was  writing  stories  pur¬ 
porting  to  come  from  a  well-known  author  who  had  died  some  years 
before  and  about  whom  the  automatist  knew  very  little.  Another 
was  engaged  in  musical  composition  both  for  the  piano  and  the 
opera.  There  were  decided  symptoms  of  hysteria  in  her  case. 
The  third  case  showed  no  disagreeable  indications  of  dissociation, 
but  was  doing  automatic  writing  purporting  to  come  from  Emma 
Abbott  and  was  singing  under  the  same  inspiration.  All  three 
were  taken  to  Mrs.  Chenoweth  under  conditions  that  excluded  all 
normal  knowledge  of  the  persons  and  the  facts.  The  personalities 


OBSESSION 


391 


purporting  to  direct  the  subjects  claimed  to  communicate  through 
Mrs.  Chenoweth  and  so  to  be  the  instigators  of  the  phenomena  ob¬ 
served.  None  of  the  three  cases  was  the  victim  of  serious  dissoci¬ 
ation  save  the  first,  who  was  rendered  incapable  of  earning  her 
living.  When  the  work  with  the  psychic  had  been  done,  however, 
she  recovered  her  balance.  None  of  them  had  reached  a  stage  in 
which  physicians  would  have  assigned  them  to  an  asylum.  They 
were  not  cases  that  would  pass  for  victims  of  obsession,  in  the 
sense  of  constant  persecution  by  transcendental  agencies.  Such 
persecution  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  cases  that  demand 
special  treatment. 

Another  case,  that  of  a  young  girl  just  entering  womanhood,  was 
diagnosed  by  two  physicians  as  dementia  precox  or  paranoia. 
There  were  no  apparent  symptoms  of  physical  degeneration ;  but 
she  became  perfectly  stupid,  so  that  she  could  not  always  rationally 
answer  questions  of  the  simplest  kind.  When  a  narrative  of  the 
child’s  experiences  came  to  my  attention  I  at  once  saw  possibilities 
that  I  should  not  have  suspected  until  I  had  observed  and  proved 
what  was  happening  in  the  several  cases  outlined  above :  and  I  re¬ 
solved  to  try  the  experiment  of  investigation  with  the  child.  I  soon 
found  that  the  phenomena  were  instigated  from  without  and  got 
into  contact  with  a  personality  whose  influence  on  the  child  can  be 
discussed  only  in  a  medical  work.  I  tried  two  psychics,  with  the 
same  general  result.  We  had  not  the  means  to  continue  the  work 
until  we  obtained  a  perfect  cure.  But  there  was  unmistakable  evi¬ 
dence  that  the  phenomena  were  of  foreign  instigation,  though  af¬ 
fected  by  the  subconsciousness  of  the  child.  There  was  no  super¬ 
ficial  evidence  of  foreign  stimuli  until  cross-reference  was  applied 
to  the  case. 

The  next  case,  that  of  Doris  Fischer,  is  most  important;  but  the 
summary  of  it  must  be  preceded  by  a  brief  account  of  the  celebrated 
case  of  Sally  Beauchamp,  treated  by  Dr.  Morton  Prince  of  Boston. 
Doris  Fischer  had  one  personality  so  like  the  mischievous  personality 
of  Sally  Beauchamp  that  a  comparison  between  the  two  is  necessary. 

Sally  Beauchamp  manifested  four  chief  personalities;  that  is, 
there  appeared  to  be  four  different  persons  inhabiting  the  one  body. 
These  were  designated  as  B.  I,  B.  II,  B.  Ill  or  Sally,  and  B.  IV. 


392  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

None  of  them  knew  anything  about  the  others,  except  that  Sally 
knew  the  other  three,  knowing  B.  IV  only  partly.  There  was  no 
connection  of  memory  between  them  except  that  Sally  knew  and 
remembered  what  the  others  thought  and  did  as  well  as  what  she 
herself  knew  and  did;  she  knew  what  B.  IV  thought  but  not  what 
B.  IV  did.  These  are  the  complications;  but  the  important  point 
is  that  she  was  mischievous,  like  one  of  the  main  personalities  in 
Doris  Fischer.  The  Beauchamp  case  was  never  tested  for  evidence 
of  spirit  agencies.^  All  that  we  can  say  is  that  Sally  showed  four 
characteristics  that  we  find  in  controls  of  mediums ;  ( i )  she  claimed 
to  be  a  spirit;  (2)  she  did  automatic  writing;  (3)  she  was  always 
conscious;  (4)  she  had  no  perception  of  time.  These  character¬ 
istics  seem  not  to  have  marked  the  chief  secondary  personality  in 
the  case  of  Doris  Fischer. 

When  a  child  of  three  and  a  half  years,  Doris  Fischer  was  picked 
up  by  her  drunken  father  and  thrown  down  on  the  floor  so  violently 
that  her  head  was  injured ;  from  that  time  on  she  suffered  from  dis¬ 
sociation  or  dual  personality  until  the  death  of  her  mother  when 
Doris  was  seventeen  years  of  age.  Until  the  death  of  her  mother 
there  were  but  two  personalities  manifested,  the  normal  Doris  and 
a  secondary  personality  who  called  herself  Margaret.  The  shock 
of  her  mother’s  death  increased  the  number  of  personalities  to  five. 
The  addition  to  the  family,  so  to  speak,  consisted  of  personalities 
called  Sick  Doris,  Sick  Real  Doris  and  Sleeping  Margaret.  This 
last  never  appeared  except  in  sleep.  Margaret  might  appear  at  any 
time  and  stayed  for  a  short  or  a  long  time  apparently  according  to 
caprice.  She  was  mischievous,  like  Sally  Beauchamp.  Sally  would 
play  all  sorts  of  pranks  on  the  other  personalities.  B.  I  was  the 
especial  object  of  her  enmity.  Sally  would  take  control  and  go  out 
to  the  country  on  the  last  street  car  and  then  leave  the  girl ;  that  is, 
let  the  normal  self  come  in,  and  the  girl  would  have  to  walk  back 
home,  arriving  exhausted.  Or  Sally  would  put  into  a  box  spiders, 
toads,  or  other  animals  of  which  the  normal  self  had  a  horror,  and 
leave  them  on  the  bureau  so  that  when  the  normal  self  opened  the 
box  she  would  have  a  severe  fright.  She  would  take  or  lose  money 
belonging  to  the  normal  self  and  thus  embarrass  the  girl  when  she 
found  that  her  money  was  gone.  Margaret  in  the  Doris  Fischer 


OBSESSION 


393 

case  would  play  similar  tricks  on  Doris,  the  normal  self.  She 
would  steal  aprons  or  candies  from  places  where  Doris  was  work¬ 
ing,  so  that  Doris  would  be  blamed  for  the  theft.  That  is,  Mar¬ 
garet  would  come  —  she  was  not  discoverable  by  strangers,  since 
the  child  would  go  on  with  her  work  as  if  normal  —  and  steal  and 
hide  what  she  wanted.  The  normal  self,  knowing  nothing  about  it, 
had  to  take  the  blame.  Margaret  would  hide  the  child’s  books  at 
school  so  that  the  normal  self  could  not  study  her  lessons.  She 
had  a  bureau  drawer  at  home  into  which  Doris,  the  normal  self, 
was  not  allowed  to  look.  There  Margaret  would  keep  things  she 
wanted  or  had  stolen,  and  if  Doris  accidentally  went  to  it  and  found 
something  of  her  own  or  Margaret’s,  Margaret  would  scratch  the 
body  until  it  bled  all  over,  and  the  normal  self  would  have  to  endure 
the  pains  and  sores.  Margaret  would  come  in  and  eat  the  candy 
that  Doris  had  bought  for  herself.  Margaret  would  take  horses 
from  the  livery  stable  and  ride  them  into  the  country,  but  would 
return  them  after  her  ride.  She  would  rush  down  to  the  river  and 
take  swims  with  all  the  child’s  clothes  on ;  the  river  was  very  dirty 
at  its  best,  with  much  of  the  filth  of  a  large  city  floating  on  its  sur¬ 
face.  The  normal  self  had  no  memory  of  the  acts,  and  could  not 
understand  the  effects. 

Margaret  did  not  claim  to  be  a  spirit,  as  did  Sally  in  the  Beau- 
champ  case;  neither  did  she  manifest  other  qualities  of  a  control, 
such  as  ignorance  of  time,  continuous  consciousness,  and  automatic 
writing.  She  seemed  to  be  only  a  dissociated  group  of  the  mental 
states  of  Doris.  Sleeping  Margaret,  however,  after  claiming  not 
to  be  a  spirit,  at  last  came  to  believe  and  to  insist  that  she  was. 
But  she  could  give  no  evidence  of  her  claim.  Sick  Doris  was  very 
stupid ;  when  she  was  in  control  the  girl  seemed  to  be  very  ill,  but 
when  the  personality  changed  she  would  be  instantly  perfectly  well 
without  a  feeling  or  appearance  of  illness.  The  transformation 
was  astonishing. 

In  all  these  manifestations  there  was  not  the  slightest  trace  of 
spirits.  Margaret  occasionally  exhibited  telepathic  powers;  but  as 
soon  as  Dr.  Walter  H.  Prince,  who  had  adopted  her  to  effect  a  cure, 
began  to  experiment  with  the  telepathy,  Margaret  ceased  to  show 
what  she  could  do.  Sleeping  Margaret  directed  the  cure  of  the 


394  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

child  and  the  removal  of  Margaret  in  a  manner  that  suggested  super¬ 
normal  knowledge.  Her  knowledge  usually,  however,  was  limited 
to  the  normal  memories  and  knowledge  of  Doris,  and,  when  you 
tested  her  on  matters  that  spirits  ought  to  know,  she  wholly  disap¬ 
pointed  you.  She  could  not  tell  what  spirits  should  tell.  Conse¬ 
quently  there  was  no  apparent  reason  to  classify  Doris  Fischer  with 
the  mediumistic  type  or  to  treat  her  personalities  as  anything  but 
dissociated  groups  of  memories  of  the  girl  herself.  Whatever  the 
explanation,  each  personality  had  to  be  treated  as  a  group  or  series 
of  mental  states  separated  from  the  other  group  or  series  by  am¬ 
nesia.  There  was  no  evidence  of  such  personal  identity  as  we  have 
to  insist  upon  finding  when  we  test  the  claims  of  communicating 
spirits.  Whether  the  “  split  ”  was  between  different  groups  of 
mental  states  or  between  different  brain  cells,  the  phenomena 
showed  slight  indication  of  being  due  to  foreign  personalities. 
They  were  just  mysteriously  separated  groups  of  mental  states 
simulating  real  individuals  in  their  memories  and  behavior. 

I  had  resolved  on  experiment  with  the  case  as  soon  as  Dr.  Walter 
H.  Prince  had  succeeded  in  his  treatment  of  the  girl  sufficiently  for 
me  to  bring  her  from  California  to  Boston.  Nothing  had  ever 
been  published  about  the  case  and  even  the  community  in  which  he 
lived  did  not  know  that  the  girl  was  an  invalid  of  the  type  above 
described.  I  brought  her  all  the  way  from  California  and  had  her 
stay  in  the  country  some  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  from  Boston, 
coming  in  each  morning  for  the  experiments  for  a  few  weeks ;  I 
then  kept  her  for  a  time  at  my  own  home  in  New  York  while  the 
experiments  continued,  and  then  took  her  again  to  Boston  for  more 
immediate  contact  with  the  psychic;  finally  I  allowed  her  to  return 
to  California,  while  I  continued  experiments  for  some  months  more. 
As  usual,  I  did  not  allow  Mrs.  Chenoweth  to  see  the  patient  at  any 
time.  The  detailed  record  shows  for  itself  the  results,  of  which 
we  can  give  only  a  very  brief  summary  here. 

The  mother  of  Doris,  who  had  been  dead  eight  years,  first  com¬ 
municated.  She  did  excellent  work  to  prove  her  identity,  by  trivial 
incidents  which  were  unusually  good  for  the  purpose.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  summarize  them  here ;  but  they,  together  with  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  supernormal  knowledge,  establish  the  presumption  that 


OBSESSION 


395 

what  she  said  about  the  condition  of  Doris  at  least  has  to  be  reck¬ 
oned  with  in  the  solution  of  the  problem.  The  mother,  however, 
seems  not  to  have  suspected  that  her  daughter  was  obsessed  by  mis¬ 
chievous  discarnate  personalities.  The  first  hint  of  obsession  came 
from  Dr.  Hodgson,  who  came  to  communicate;  he  compared  the 
case  to  that  of  Sally  Beauchamp  and  remarked  that  it  was  as  “  im¬ 
portant  as  any  that  Morton  Prince  ever  had.”  Dr.  Hodgson  had 
seen  and  experimented  with  Miss  Beauchamp  when  he  was  living 
and  knew  Dr.  Morton  Prince  personally.  I  had  undertaken  the 
experiments  partly  to  see  if  any  comparison  with  the  Beauchamp 
case  could  be  made;  but  when  he  had  made  the  comparison  he  went 
on  to  indicate  that  Doris’s  malady  was  a  case  of  obsession,  saying 
that  we  should  have  to  reckon  with  a  little  Indian  in  connection  with 
the  case.  After  her  cure,  Doris  developed  automatic  writing  with 
the  planchette.  The  personality  instigating  this  writing  purported 
to  be  a  guide  for  the  girl  and  told  a  few  things  that  had  happened 
in  the  development  of  the  case,  which  I  was  able  to  verify  in  Cali¬ 
fornia.  Then  came  the  little  Indian  personality  to  whom  Dr. 
Hodgson  had  referred ;  she  gave  the  name  Minnehaha  or  Laughing 
Water.  This  name  is  too  well  known  to  be  significant,  and  her 
identity  could  not  be  proved.  But  the  record  shows  that  she  was 
well  acquainted  with  incidents  in  Doris  Fischer’s  life.  She  de¬ 
scribed  what  had  gone  on  and  defined  the  nature  of  obsession 
very  well  in  what  she  said  of  the  vicious  personalities  associated 
with  it. 

As  Sleeping  Margaret  had  claimed  to  be  a  spirit,  I  tried  to  verify 
her  statement.  Margaret  made  no  such  claims.  But  in  my  first 
series  of  experiments  no  trace  of  either  of  them  appeared.  I  then 
took  Doris  to  New  York  and  had  a  seance  with  Sleeping  Margaret 
to  know  why  she  had  not  communicated  in  Boston.  Her  answer 
was  that  she  did  not  get  a  chance,  as  there  were  so  many  others 
there.  I  then  asked  her  to  come  to  Boston  while  Doris  remained 
in  New  York,  and  to  communicate  with  me.  She  said  that  she 
could  not  do  it;  that  she  could  not  go  so  far  away  from  Doris. 
But  she  promised  to  try,  if  I  took  her  back  to  Boston.  I  did  so, 
but  I  received  no  trace  of  Sleeping  Margaret  as  a  communicator. 
I  then  resolved  on  a  new  experiment.  Dr.  Hodgson  had  said  that 


30  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Starlight,  a  little  Indian  control  of  Mrs.  Chenoweth,  had  discovered 
Minnehaha,  and  I  thought  I  might  find  out  whether  she  could  get 
into  contact  with  Sleeping  Margaret,  if  the  latter  was  a  spirit  at  all. 
I  arranged  the  experiment  so  that  Mrs.  Chenoweth  would  not  know 
that  I  was  dealing  with  the  same  case  and  so  that  she  would  seem 
to  be  sitting  for  some  stranger.  Again  I  did  not  allow  Mrs.  Cheno¬ 
weth  to  see  Doris.  As  the  experiment  had  to  be  carried  out  when 
Doris  was  asleep  I  had  her  go  to  bed  and  be  asleep  when  I  admitted 
Mrs.  Chenoweth.  I  had  the  face,  hands  and  body  of  Doris  covered 
up  so  that  she  could  not  be  seen.  As  soon  as  Mrs.  Chenoweth  went 
into  the  trance,  Starlight  saw  Minnehaha  and  tried  to  give  her  name, 
but  did  not  succeed.  She  got  “  water  lily  ”  and  then  said,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  pictographic  process :  “  I  see,  like  a  waterfall, 

just  like  water  falling  over  and  whether  it  is  Water  Fall  or  —  some¬ 
thing  like  that.”  Then  she  remarked :  “  She  laughs  after  she 

shows  me  the  water.”  Readers  will  remark  that  the  name  was 
"ctually  given  in  this  description ;  but  it  is  strange  that  the  subliminal 
^f'uld  not  do  better  when  the  name  had  been  given  before  clearly 
enough,  and  was  presumably  already  known,  according  to  skeptical 
theories,  by  the  subliminal.  But  Starlight  saw  no  one  else  except 
the  mother  and  “  the  spirit  of  the  girl  herself.”  partly  out  of  the 
body  and  partly  in,  as  she  stated,  remarking  that,  if  she  would  go 
out  farther  she  could  communicate  with  the  dead.  Sleeping  Mar¬ 
garet  had  not  shown  herself  able  to  do  this;  I  had  thus  been  unable 
to  prove  her  a  spirit.  On  the  contrary  Starlight  insisted  that  she 
was  “  the  spirit  of  the  girl  ”  herself,  and  later  the  work  made  this 
interpretation  clearer.  When  I  resumed  my  regular  work  at  the 
next  sitting,  Minnehaha  came;  she  named  both  the  Margarets  and 
indicated  that  Sleeping  Margaret  was  what  Starlight  had  said. 
Then  Margaret  was  put  to  work  to  “  confess  ”  what  she  had  done 
to  the  child.  Margaret  told  a  number  of  the  tricks  and  pranks  she 
had  played  on  the  girl  and  then  followed  a  number  of  other  per¬ 
sonalities  said  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  phenomena  observed 
and  reported  by  Dr.  Walter  F.  Prince.  Various  events  in  the  life 
of  Doris  which  thus  came  out  indicated  that  Margaret  was  a  spirit, 
though  there  was  no  evidence  to  that  effect  in  the  experiences  of 
Doris.  Minnehaha  terminated  the  experiments  by  recounting  a 


OBSESSION 


397 

large  number  of  facts  which  had  occurred  in  California  after  Doris 
returned  home.  They  do  not  directly  bear  upon  the  subject  of 
obsession,  but  in  so  far  as  evidence  of  supernormal  knowledge  en¬ 
ables  us  to  assign  limits  to  subliminal  influence,  they  are  consonant 
with  the  evidence  for  obsession. 

I  have  known  three  other  instances,  none  of  which  have  been  re¬ 
ported,  which  show  the  same  kind  of  evidence  that  foreign  agencies 
can  perform  a  great  deal  of  mischief,  when  they  get  access  to  the 
mind  or  body  of  a  living  person.  I  cannot  summarize  these  cases 
here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  add  to  the  number  of  cases  in 
which  we  have  to  reckon  with  an  influence  that  has  not  yet  been 
admitted  to  the  archives  of  psychiatry. 

It  is  important  to  remark  at  the  outset  of  the  explanation  of  ob¬ 
session  that  I  do  not  mean  this  idea  to  be  a  substitute  for  hysteria, 
dementia  precox,  paranoia  or  other  maladies,  nor  is  it  a  rival  ex¬ 
planation.  Even  the  controls  stated  through  Mrs.  Chenoweth  that 
obsession  might  itself  be  caused  by  disease  or  accident,  thus  con¬ 
ceding  that  lesions  might  give  rise  to  it  and  hence  that  we  are  not 
to  set  aside  organic  and  functional  troubles  in  body  and  mind  when 
acknowledging  that  obsession  by  spirits  is  an  accompaniment  of  the 
trouble.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  any  disturbance  to  healthy  func¬ 
tions,  bodily  or  mental,  might  create  conditions  in  which  accidental 
connections  with  the  discarnate  would  be  established  and  would 
open  the  way  to  all  sorts  of  voluntary  and  involuntary  invasions. 
At  least  that  is  the  theory  of  the  spirits  themselves,  and  the  facts 
tend  to  support  the  contention. 

It  must  therefore  be  thoroughly  understood  that  we  are  not  con¬ 
troverting  physiological  or  psychiatrical  explanations.  The  only 
revolution  that  we  wish  to  introduce  into  medicine  is  the  denial  of 
the  limits  ordinarily  assigned  to  causes  of  disease  and  methods  of 
treatment.  The  terms  hysteria,  dementia  precox,  paranoia,  manic 
depressive  insanity,  and  epilepsy  are  largely  descriptive ;  the  causes 
are  revealed  only  by  the  autopsy  and  other  such  methods.  Obses¬ 
sion  does  not  displace  other  causes,  but  adds  to  them  another  factor. 
It  is  a  cause,  not  a  mere  description,  because  it  implies  that  an  ex¬ 
ternal  agency  produces  the  phenomena.  A  foreign  influence  is 
added  to  the  subjective  conditions. 


398  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

We  cannot  as  yet  say  exactly  how  these  foreign  influences  act. 
All  that  we  contend  is,  that  the  facts  are  evidence  that  they  do  act; 
it  remains  for  the  future  to  determine  how.  This  will  be  no  easy 
task.  We  have  but  touched  the  §urface  in  this  problem,  and  we 
may  have  to  experiment  with  a  thousand  cases  in  order  to  fix  upon 
any  generalization  about  the  results  or  to  determine  rules  of  pro¬ 
cedure  and  therapeutics.  At  any  rate,  we  cannot  generalize  from 
the  few  cases  that  have  yielded  to  investigation.  We  have  still  to 
experiment  and  to  develop  methods  of  healing. 

As  to  how  obsession  takes  place,  we  can  resort  only  to  specula¬ 
tion.  We  have  little  data  to  go  upon  at  present  in  this  limitless 
field.  I  have  alluded  to  telepathy  as  making  possible  the  influence 
of  mind  upon  mind  independently  of  normal  methods  of  causation, 
and  said  that  we  need  not  adopt  a  spiritistic  hypothesis  to  explain 
the  facts.  But  one  cannot  examine  these  facts  and  be  impressed 
with  telepathic  explanations.  \Vhen  the  existence  of  discarnate 
spirits  is  once  admitted,  we  have  to  assume  some  sort  of  transcen¬ 
dental  process  as  the  method  of  obsession.  Whatever  the  process 
is  in  telepathy,  it  is  conceivably  applicable  to  obsession.  But  the 
means  are  not  the  first  thing  to  be  determined.  The  frequency  of 
occurrence  is  more  important  at  present  than  the  cause.  We  can 
hope  to  understand  obsession  if  we  can  get  at  the  reason  for  its 
frequency. 

Many  features  in  the  ordinary  communications  between  the  dead 
and  the  living  suggest  where  we  must  look  if  we  are  to  understand 
the  phenomena,  even  though  we  have  not  as  yet  brought  them  under 
experimental  control.  In  the  first  place,  even  in  cases  of  medium- 
ship,  in  which  the  process  of  communication  is  probably  the  same 
as  in  obsession,  though  under  the  control  of  more  intelligent  per¬ 
sonalities,  it  is  clear  that  many  messages  are  involuntary.  The 
communicator  cannot  always  determine  what  he  shall  send.  If 
the  spirit  present  does  not  know  his  business,  he  may  cause  evils  of 
all  sorts  without  knowing  what  he  is  doing.  If  he  knows  what  he 
is  doing,  the  result  will  depend  on  his  character.  In  addition  to 
these  factors,  proximity  of  a  spirit  to  an  impressionable  subject  may 
expose  the  latter  to  either  intentional  or  unintentional  influences 
from  the  transcendental  world.  Obsession  may  be  accidental  rather 


OBSESSION 


399 

than  purposive;  but,  when  once  invaded,  the  subject  is  an  open  door 
for  the  transmission  of  anything  that  comes  his  way. 

For  all  that  we  know  consciousness  is  a  form  of  energy  with  its 
own  laws  of  transmission  and  inhibition.  If  it  be  such,  we  can 
well  surmise  how  the  way  might  often  be  accidentally  opened  to  the 
reception  of  foreign  influences  which  may  lead  to  disastrous  results. 
But  these  influences  are  as  often  purposive  and  malicious  as  acci¬ 
dental  ;  the  problem  is  to  ascertain  how  we  may  practically  deal  with 
such  cases.  The  orderly  or  disorderly  impingement  of  the  spiritual 
world  upon  the  embodied  soul  in  the  physical  world  depends  on  a 
combination  of  circumstances  which  we  have  not  yet  exactly  deter¬ 
mined.  The  influence  may  be  found  to  have  analogies  with  me¬ 
chanical  forces ;  its  benevolent  or  malevolent  operation  may  depend 
on  our  ability  to  regulate  the  conditions  that  make  the  influence  pos¬ 
sible,  or  to  guide  the  agencies  into  a  course  of  action  that  will  not 
interfere  with  the  normal  life  of  men.  That  is  no  easy  task.  The 
cures  effected  have  required  much  time  and  patience,  the  use  of 
psychotherapeutics  of  an  unusual  kind,  and  the  employment  of 
psychics  to  get  into  contact  with  the  obsessing  agents  and  thus  to 
release  the  hold  which  such  agents  have,  or  to  educate  them  to  vol¬ 
untary  abandonment  of  their  persecutions. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  details  of  this  question.  All  that  I  de¬ 
sire  to  do  in  this  discussion  is  to  suggest  the  wide  application  of 
the  hypothesis  in  the  treatment  of  cases  regarded  as  incurably  in¬ 
sane.  It  is  the  consequence  to  the  theories  and  therapeutics  of 
insanity  that  is  important  here.  Dr.  Meyer  Solomon  of  Chicago, 
when  reviewing  the  case  of  Doris  Fischer,  said  that  if  our  explana¬ 
tion  of  that  case  be  true,  we  should  have  “  to  apply  it  to  all  hysteria, 
dementia  precox,  paranoia,  manic-depressive  insanity,  and  genius.” 

I  am  not  yet  prepared  to  generalize  or  to  determine  extensions  of 
the  hypothesis.  But  we  have  proved  enough  to  suggest  the  possi¬ 
bilities  ;  and  any  physician  who  recognizes  them  and  the  facts  will 
open  his  mind  to  revolutionary  possibilities  in  the  diagnosis  and 
cure  of  cases  usually  regarded  as  hopelessly  insane.  Doris  Fischer 
was  so  regarded  by  the  physicians  who  saw  her.  Dr.  Walter 
Prince,  however,  cured  her  by  care  and  suggestion ;  until  she  be¬ 
came  so  healthy  and  rational  that  she  was  able  to  manage  a  chicken 


400  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

farm  of  large  dimensions,  to  serve  as  Vice  President  of  the  Poultry- 
Association  in  her  home  county,  and  to  preside  at  meetings  with 
tact  and  control.  One  case  that  I  myself  cured  by  hypnotic  sug¬ 
gestion  in  three  days  has  been  perfectly  well  for  five  or  six  years, 
earning  his  living  with  his  violin  on  the  stage.  He  was  sent  to 
Bellevue  Hospital  in  the  belief  that  he  was  incurable. 

I  repeat  that  I  am  not  prepared  to  make  generalizations  on  the 
subject,  either  with  reference  to  diagnosis  or  cure.  But  I  do  know 
that  every  single  case  of  dissociation  and  paranoia  to  which  I  have 
applied  cross-reference  has  yielded  to  the  method  and  proved  the 
existence  of  foreign  agencies  complicated  with  the  symptoms  of 
mental  or  physical  deterioration.  It  is  high  time  to  prosecute  ex¬ 
periments  on  a  large  scale  in  a  field  that  promises  to  have  as  much 
practical  value  as  any  application  of  the  scalpel  and  the  microscope. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


MEDIUMSHIP 

Many  people  would  like  to  know  what  mediumship  is,  or 
by  what  marks  we  can  discover  and  recognize  it.  The 
briefest  answer  to  such  a  query  is,  either  that  we  do  not 
know  what  the  marks  are ;  or  that  they  are  phenomena  which  can 
be  proved  to  be  genuinely  supernormal,  representing  a  communica¬ 
tion  between  different  minds.  But  we  can  hardly  dismiss  the  sub¬ 
ject  with  so  summary  an  account. 

Usually  in  telling  what  a  thing  is,  we  have  to  give  it  a  place  in  a 
known  class,  with  some  distinguishing  mark  that  defines  it  as  a  spe¬ 
cial  type  in  that  class.  There  is  also  a  descriptive  definition  which 
names  the  various  marks  or  properties  by  which  the  term  defined 
may  be  known.  There  are  no  distinguishing  marks  of  the  physi¬ 
cal  kind  to  describe  mediums,  or  to  mark  them  off  from  other 
people;  the  only  mark  is  the  ability  to  give  supernormal  information 
about  the  discarnate  world,  though  the  term  is  loosely  applied  to  a 
person  who  can  give  any  supernormal  manifestation,  since  .spir¬ 
itualists  explain  all  such  phenomena  due  to  the  intervention  of 
spirits.  Etymologically  the  term  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word 
“  medium,”  which  denotes  the  “  middle  ”  or  the  intermediary  be¬ 
tween  two  things,  the  way  to  reach  them,  the  means  of  communica¬ 
tion.  It  was  hence  adopted  to  denote  the  agency  which  intervenes 
between  the  physical  and  the  transcendental  world.  The  ordinary 
analogy  is  to  an  electric  wire,  which  is  the  “  medium  ”  of  communi¬ 
cation  in  telegraphy,  whereby  the  agent  transmits  messages  from 
one  point  to  another.  But  the  analogy  is  not  exact,  as  the  processes 
involve  no  known  resemblances  to  electrical  action.  The  only 
means  of  communicating  with  the  dead  has  been  found  to  be  a  living 
organism  capable  of  connecting  the  two  worlds. 

But  this  definition  of  mediumship  depends  wholly  upon  the  phe¬ 
nomena  in  question  and  does  not  enable  us  to  point  out  any  marks 

401 


402  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

or  characteristics  other  than  the  very  facts  to  be  proved;  whereas 
what  every  one  desires  to  know  is  what  particular  characteristic 
enables  the  medium  to  do  what  is  claimed.  I  do  not  know  of  any 
physical  characteristics  whatever  that  might  lead  us  to  designate 
a  medium  without  testing  her  for  supernormal  phenomena.  One 
Frenchman  thought  he  had  discovered  a  spot  in  the  eye  that  indi¬ 
cated  mediumship.  But  I  see  no  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  dis¬ 
covery  and  find  nothing  in  my  experience  to  confirm  it.  So  far  as 
I  know,  the  only  mental  characteristic  is  hysteria.  But  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  term  “  hysteria,”  apart  from  a  consideration  of  the 
circumstances,  cannot  be  indiscriminately  made.  All  depends  on 
the  definition  of  hysteria.  In  the  older  meaning  of  the  term,  which 
described  a  nervous  and  excitable  person  who  could  not  exercise 
self-control,  hysteria  is  certainly  no  mark  of  mediumship.  That 
type  is  seldom  or  never  marked  by  psychic  abilities.  But  in  later 
times  the  term  ”  hysteria  ”  has  come  to  mean  more  technically,  and 
at  the  same  time  more  inclusively,  the  presence  of  automatism  or 
subconscious  action,  in  the  form  of  dissociation.  The  terms  “  hys¬ 
teria  ”  and  “  dissociation  ”  are  largely  synonymous,  or  at  least 
denote  the  same  general  phenomena.  Liability  to  what  is  called 
automatism  is  in  many,  if  not  all,  cases  a  symptom  of  hysteria. 

Now  it  is  probable  that  dissociation  and  automatism  characterize 
all  mediums,  though  there  are  types  that  betray  no  evidence  of  these 
conditions,  except  the  production  of  certain  results.  There  are 
instances  within  my  own  observation  in  which  the  subject  himself 
discovered  the  mediumship  or  psychic  abilities  only  by  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  supernormal  coincidences  in  his  experience,  without  any 
apparent  alteration  of  the  normal  conditions  of  body  or  mind.  But 
it  is  true  that  automatism  is  characteristic  of  all  well-developed  me¬ 
diumship  that  has  come  within  my  own  observation.  This  means 
that  automatic  writing,  autornatic  visions,  or  automatic  voices  occur, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  a  fundamental  characteristic  of  medium- 
ship.  It  is  true  that  automatism  and  dissociation  often  occur 
without  any  traces  of  the  supernormal  or  of  mediumship  in  its 
narrower  import  of  communication  with  the  dead.  But  their  pres¬ 
ence  in  developed  mediums  suggests  that  the  instances  which  ex¬ 
hibit  no  supernormal  capacities  are  simply  undeveloped  cases;  that 


MEDIUMSHIP 


403 


perhaps  the  automatism  and  dissociation  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  mediumship,  but  that  the  development  of  them  into  sources  of 
supernormal  knowledge  depends  on  the  establishing  of  rapport  with 
the  transcendental  world  instead  of  confining  it  to  the  physical 
world.  That  has  been  largely  my  own  experience,  and  only  the 
fact  that  this  experience  has  not  been  extensive  enough  to  justify 
generalization  prevents  me  from  stating  that  as  a  law.  It  is  a  good 
hypothesis  on  which  to  work,  and  we  may  ultimately  find  that  the 
instances  of  supernormal  coincidence  which  do  not  superficially 
betray  dissociation  nevertheless  contain  it  in  a  latent  form  so  ad¬ 
justed  to  the  normal  life  that  its  existence  is  not  easily  detected. 

At  any  rate  it  is  fairly  certain  that  cases  of  dissociation  and  au¬ 
tomatism  are  worth  investigating  for  the  development  of  medium- 
ship  or  psychic  powers  of  some  kind.  This  means  that  we  may 
regard  automatism  and  dissociation  as  fundamental  marks  of  me¬ 
diumship,  though  they  do  not  constitute  all  that  is  necessary  to 
achieve  the  desired  result.  Rapport  with  a  transcendental  world 
either  of  other  living  minds  or  of  discarnate  personalities,  may  be 
the  further  characteristic  necessary  to  make  the  mediumship  com¬ 
plete. 

It  will  probably  require  a  long  time  accurately  to  determine  the 
nature  and  limits  of  mediumship.  There  has  been,  so  far,  no  effort 
to  define  it  save  by  the  presence  of  the  supernormal.  Critics  and 
skeptics,  especially  in  the  fields  of  medicine  and  psychology,  have 
tried  often  enough  to  discredit  mediumship  by  calling  it  hysteria  or 
dissociation.  Hysteria  at  best  is  but  a  descriptive  term.  It  is  not 
in  the  least  explanatory,  and  does  not  carry  with  it  any  clear  impli¬ 
cations  of  the  cause.  The  skeptic  wants  us  to  conceive  hysteria 
and  dissociation  as  explanations  of  phenomena  which  at  least  super¬ 
ficially  appear  to  be  supernormal.  But  I  am  going  here  to  insist 
that  hysteria,  dissociation,  and  automatism  are  in  no  respect  rivals 
or  contradictories  of  mediumship.  They  are  conditions  of  its  ex¬ 
istence,  at  least  apparently  and  in  most  cases.  The  only  legitimate 
factor  of  the  skeptic's  contention  is,  that  if  nothing  more  than  au¬ 
tomatism  is  present,  we  are  without  evidence  of  actual  medium- 
ship,  in  so  far  as  mediumship  implies  the  supernormal.  We  have 
neither  explained  the  automatism  nor  succeeded  in  setting  up  a  con- 


404  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ception  that  displaces  genuine  mediumship,  whose  distinguishing 
mark  is  facts  exhibiting  evidence  of  supernormal  knowledge,  no 
matter  what  the  physiological  and  psychological  condition  of  the 
subject.  The  question  is,  whether  there  is  a  connection  between 
the  mental  phenomena  of  the  hysteric,  automatist,  insane  patient, 
or  other  person,  and  some  event  foreign  to  this  subject’s  knowledge. 
The  psychic  researcher  can  admit,  if  the  facts  require  it,  that  all 
supernormal  phenomena  are  accompanied  by  abnormal  mental  states 
in  the  subject.  The  crucial  question  is,  first,  whether  the  phe¬ 
nomena  are  referable  to  subjective  causes  or  to  causes  external  to 
the  mind  affected ;  and  .rcrond,  whether  the  external  cause,  if  it  exist, 
is  an  ordinary  physical  stimulus  or  is  independent  of  normal  sense- 
perception.  We  are  insisting  only  that  supernormal  phenomena 
cannot  be  classified  under  hysteria,  automatism,  dissociation,  sec¬ 
ondary  personality,  or  insanity  as  phenomena  of  a  purely  subjective 
nature. 

The  first  question  as  to  the  nature  of  mediumship  is  not  its  cause 
in  the  sense  of  its  initiation  or  production,  but  its  occurrence  and 
classification.  If  certain  phenomena  bear  no  evidence  of  the  super¬ 
normal,  but  are  accompanied  by  hysteria,  automatism,  etc.,  we  may 
well  describe  them  by  these  latter  terms  and  admit  that  their  cause 
is  either  functional  derangement  of  the  mind  or  some  ordinary 
physical  stimulus.  But  if  the  phenomena  show  an  undoubted  rela¬ 
tion  to  some  external  event  not  known  to  the  subject  and  thus  out¬ 
side  the  range  of  normal  sense-perception,  we  can  safely  refuse  to 
cjassjfy  them  with  phenomena  that  are  provably  connected  with 
normal  causes.  We  can  seek  for  causes  other  than  physical  stimuli, 
when  we  have  determined  whether  the  facts  are  included  in  the 
normal  and  abnormal  field  or  are  excluded  from  it.  We  name  them 
supernormal  when  they  are  thus  excluded. 

There  is  overwhelming  evidence  for  the  existence  of  supernormal 
experience,  whether  manifested  in  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  or  com¬ 
munication  with  the  dead.  It  is  certain  that  there  is  a  vast  field  of 
facts  not  explained  by  hysteria,  automatism,  dissociation,  secondary 
personality,  or  insanity.  These  facts  suffice  to  indicate  some  ac¬ 
ceptable  meaning  for  mediumship. 

So  much  for  the  existence  and  the  nature  of  mediumship.  The 


MEDIUMSHIP 


405 

explanation  of  it  may  await  the  future.  What  most  people  wish  to 
know  is  some  practical  criterion  for  telling  when  it  is  present  and 
what  to  do  with  it.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  important  aspect  of 
the  present  question. 

From  what  I  have  said  about  its  nature  and  the  marks  which  dis¬ 
tinguish  it,  it  is  perhaps  clear  that  we  have  no  final  assurance  of 
its  presence  until  we  actually  prove  the  presence  of  supernormal 
phenomena.  Prior  to  that  stage  of  its  development  we  may  have 
to  be  content  with  hysteria,  automatism,  dissociation,  and  secondary 
personality,  which  are  limiting  ideas,  so  to  speak,  or  terms  indicat¬ 
ing  that  evidence  of  the  supernormal  is  lacking.  No  doubt  there 
are  many  supernormal  experiences  besides  those  that  are  evidential ; 
but,  in  the  present  stage  of  the  investigation,  we  have  to  be  careful 
about  accepting  these.  The  nature  of  evidence  of  the  supernormal 
has  been  fully  explained  in  the  chapter  on  “  Problems  of  Evidence  ”  ; 
it  includes  both  the  negative  characteristic  of  excluding  fraud,  the 
subconscious,  chance  coincidence  and  guessing,  and  the  positive 
char^teristic  of  a  connection  with  some  event  not  known  by  the 
subject.  The  criterion  just  defined  applies  to  individual  cases  of 
mediumship.  It  requires  that  each  incident  shall  at  least  be  ex¬ 
plicable  by  a  foreign  and  transcendental  stimulus;  the  multiplica¬ 
tion  of  these  individual  test  cases  will  prove  the  existence  of  the 
supernormal.  But  there  are  many  non-evidential  incidents  and 
statements.  They  may  refer  to  alleged  events  in  a  transcendental 
world,  which  no  living  person  can  verify.  The  primary  test  of 
genuine  supernormality  cannot  apply  to  them.  But  if  we  can  make 
a  large  number  of  records  of  similar  statements  issuing  from  real 
or  alleged  mediums  who  were  not  in  communication  with  each 
other,  their  collective  unity  will  have  some  value.  If  they  all  agree 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  transcendental  w^orld,  and  we  can  prove 
that  the  mediums  had  never  read  about  the  subject  and  were  not 
familiar  with  any  of  the  ideas  expressed,  the  consistency  of  such 
records  would  have  at  least  some  suggestive  value. 

Further  than  these  suggestions,  we  know  little  of  the  conditions 
for  mediumship,  and  there  are  at  present  no  facilities  for  investigat¬ 
ing  them.  The  remaining  question  is  how  to  cultivate  the  faculty. 
On  this  point  also  we  can  give  very  few  definite  instructions  and 


4o6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

certainly  no  dogmatic  rules.  We  as  yet  know  too  little  to  do  more 
than  ask  for  adequate  investigation,  which  will  require  the  careful 
study  of  all  possible  cases  that  may  come  to  us.  This  is  not  possi¬ 
ble  as  yet;  the  cases  have  been  too  few  to  justify  wide  and  confident 
generalizations.  At  one  time,  from  my  experience  with  a  dozen 
instances,  I  felt  secure  in  saying  that  there  is  no  danger  in  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  mediumship;  but,  after  the  discovery  of  obsession,  I  felt 
more  cautious  in  giving  assurance  that  there  are  no  risks.  I  do  not 
mean  to  assert  or  imply  that  it  is  generally  dangerous,  for  it  seems 
not  to  be;  often  even  in  the  cases  which  seem  most  alarming.  But 
we  know  too  little  to  say  that  it  is  either  dangerous  or  not  danger¬ 
ous.  I  am  only  certain  that  in  many  cases  it  has  not  only  not  been 
dangerous  but  has  been  beneficial,  physically  and  mentally,  to  the 
subjects.  There  are  also  cases  where  the  reverse  is  true.  Hence 
it  remains  to  determine  the  risks  in  each  individual  instance. 

The  circumstances  under  which  mediumship  develops  are  vari¬ 
ous.  It  appears  not  to  be  the  consequence  of  weak-mindedness, 
but  may  be  induced  by  illness  or  accident.  It  is  probable  that  the 
main  condition  of  its  development  is  passivity  of  will.  This  is  com¬ 
patible  with  any  degree  of  intelligence,  even  of  strong  will.  If  the 
individual  can  voluntarily  suppress  his  will,  he  may  develop  me- 
diumistic  qualities,  though  they  are  less  likely  to  occur  under  these 
circumstances  than  in  cases  of  natural  passivity.  It  is  probable 
that  the  relation  of  illness  and  accident  to  mediumship  is  due  to  the 
effect  of  such  conditions  in  making  the  will  passive  at  least  until  the 
mediumship  has  developed ;  it  may  then  become  a  fixed  feature  of 
the  constitution.  If  it  be  due  to  natural  passivity  of  will,  the  pre¬ 
vention  of  its  harmful  forms  may  be  more  difficult;  but  if  the 
passivity  is  voluntary,  the  prevention  of  danger  lies  largely  with 
the  subject. 

The  first  thing  to  keep  in  mind  regarding  incipient  mediumship 
is  that  it  cannot  easily  be  prevented.  One  cannot  kill  it  by  disre¬ 
garding  it.  It  betokens  the  existence  of  physiological  and  psycho¬ 
logical  conditions  which  the  will  did  not  produce;  whether  the 
psychic  power  is  a  casual  product  of  temperament  or  the  effect  of 
outside  agencies,  it  cannot  be  created  at  will.  _If  desired,  the  con¬ 
dition  might  develop  in  time,  but  it  will  not  come  at  command.  One 


MEDIUMSHIP 


407 

who  finds  that  it  suddenly  manifests  itself  when  he  becomes  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  subject  may  rest  assured  that  it  was  latent  all  the  while. 
I  have  seen  many  cases  in  which  the  subject  was  wholly  unaware  of 
his  power  until  either  the  ouija  board  or  automatic  writing  was 
tried,  when  the  faculty  was  at  once  manifest,  though  perhaps  not 
developed  to  the  point  of  doing  systematic  scientific  work.  On  the 
other  hand  I  have  seen  it  in  an  incipient  stage,  with  automatic  writ¬ 
ing  quite  fluent  and  easy;  and  yet  years  of  practice  did  not  improve 
it.  We  cannot  tell  beforehand  what  will  take  place  in  any  given 
instance. 

The  proper  manner  of  dealing  with  mediumship  when  observed  is 
to  treat  it  seriously.  If  it  is  not  fully  developed,  treating  it  as  a 
joke  or  using  it  for  mere  amusement  exposes  the  subject  to  various 
kinds  of  danger.  If  spiritistic  agencies  are  concerned,  treating' 
mediumship  as  a  joke  will  only  attract  those  on  the  other  side  whose 
temperaments  make  them  look  at  it  in  the  same  way,  and  the  subject 
will  be  e.xposed  to  the  risk  of  unwelcome  obsessions.  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  need  be  treated  too  solemnly,  but  that  its  phenomena  should 
be  seriously  investigated,  and  not  made  an  occasion  for  horse-fun. 
Intelligent  spirits  will  not  waste  time  in  producing  phenomena  with 
fools. 

High  motives  and  the  persistent  purpose  to  make  good  use  of  the 
faculty  will  protect  the  subject,  at  least  in  most  cases,  from  the 
dangers  of  which  I  spoke.  Probably  the  power  can  be  protected 
by  those  on  the  other  side;  and,  if  the  medium  insists  on  making 
a  serious  use  of  the  ability,  he  will  soon  be  under  the  protection 
of  the  better  type  of  personality,  and  unpleasant  obsessions  will  not 
occur.  Unpleasant  phenomena  may  occur  even  under  the  best  of 
protection,  but  they  do  not  last  long  and  are  less  likely  to  occur  at  all. 

In  the  early  stages  of  development  often  there  will  appear  wan¬ 
dering  personalities,  persons  who  have  recently  died  and  are  seek¬ 
ing  expression  or  communication  through  the  psychic,  or  are  put 
there  to  help  in  the  preliminary  development  of  the  medium.  The 
law  involved  in  this  occurrence  we  do  not  yet  know,  but  it  is  fre¬ 
quent  enough  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  to  justify  the  stopping  of 
such  intrusions  only  when  experience  shows  that  their  presence  is 
neither  normal  nor  helpful  in  the  development  of  the  psychic. 


4o8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Those  chance  comers  seldom  appear  in  fully  developed  psychics 
and  then  usually  with  the  express  permission  of  the  guides  or  cjn- 
trols  for  various  purposes.  Among  them  the  most  frequent  is 
the  purpose  to  help  some  spirit  from  an  earth-bound  condition,  or 
to  help  some  living  friend  of  the  wanderer.  If  the  situation  is 
rightly  managed,  there  is  apparently  no  risk  in  admitting  such  a 
person.  But  one  must  firmly  insist  that  the  reason  for  his  pres¬ 
ence  be  known,  and  while  the  correctness  of  the  reason  given  can¬ 
not  be  proved,  if  it  is  clearly  possible  or  not  unreasonable,  it  is  ad¬ 
visable  to  experiment  until  the  effect  is  proved  to  be  good  or  bad. 

The  only  danger,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  is  that  of  obsession.  This 
can  usually  be  prevented  either  by  the  use  of  a  strong  will  against 
any  disposition  to  disturb  one’s  normal  life,  or  by  insisting  that 
nothing  but  serious  objects  in  the  work  shall  be  admitted.  Weak¬ 
ness  of  will  is  dangerous,  and  the  individual  must  learn  to  cultivate 
his  own  individuality  and  to  insist  that  this  shall  not  be  invaded 
except  for  good  purposes.  The  good  person  does  not  always  pre¬ 
vent  the  bad  spirit  from  coming  nor  does  the  bad  person  prevent 
the  good  spirit  from  coming.  The  attitude  of  will  has  more  to  do 
with  the  result  than  anything  else.  If  the  subject  is  intellectually 
and  morally  passive,  or  does  not  insist  on  evidence  that  any  special 
presence  is  good,  then  any  kind  of  determined  foreign  will  can  take 
control.  The  subject  should  be  as  critical  as  the  unconvinced 
sitter.  In  this  way  obsessions  can  be  prevented. 

The  first  thing  to  demand  is  that  the  alleged  spirit  either  prove 
his  own  identity  or  help  in  proving  that  of  others.  The  proof  of 
identity  will  be  most  satisfactory  when  the  facts  are  wholly  un¬ 
known  to  the  medium ;  indeed  it  would  require  an  immense  number 
of  coordinated  facts,  if  known  by  the  medium,  to  constitute  ade¬ 
quate  evidence.  The  proper  thing  to  do  is  patiently  and  tolerantly 
to  insist  that  incidents  be  given  which  the  psychic  does  not  know, 
preferably  facts  which  the  sitter  also  does  not  know  but  can  verify. 

The  greatest  patience  should  be  exercised.  Often  the  personali¬ 
ties  will  leave  if  roughly  addressed.  The  subconscious  of  the 
psychic  must  be  made  to  feel  that  the  sitter  is  serious  and  patient 
with  the  difficulties ;  the  cooperation  of  the  subconscious  is  a  neces¬ 
sary  condition  in  securing  evidence.  If  distrust  be  aroused  in  the 


MEDIUMSHIP 


409 

medium,  no  matter  how  genuine  he  may  be,  good  evidence  cannot 
be  obtained.  The  very  first  condition  of  success  is  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  the  subconscious,  by  being  serious  and  by  exercising 
patience  and  tact.  Opinions  of  the  phenomena  may  be  formed 
afterwards,  but  unfavorable  judgments  should  not  be  revealed  at 
the  time. 

The  real  or  alleged  communicators  should  have  as  much  time  as 
may  be  necessary  for  their  expression.  The  sitter  may  calmly  and 
firmly  insist  that  he  cannot  believe  until  the  proper  evidence  is  forth¬ 
coming,  but  he  should  be  a  spectator  rather  than  a  director  of  the 
phenomena,  though  judgment  may  be  exercised  as  to  the  amount 
of  time  granted.  The  appearance  of  a  mischievous  personality 
should  be  received  tolerantly  and  the  nature  of  the  work  explained, 
with  the  insistence  that  he  conform  to  that  aim.  If  he  does  not,  the 
sitter  can  insist  as  firmly  upon  his  leaving,  and  the  best  way  to  ac¬ 
complish  this  is  to  stop  the  work.  When  the  work  becomes  sys¬ 
tematically  developed,  such  invaders  either  will  not  appear  or  can  be 
controlled  by  the  guides. 

No  matter  what  the  sitter  may  think  of  the  phenomena,  he  should 
treat  them  as  if  they  were  really  spiritistic  and  keep  his  opinions 
to  himself  when  experimenting.  The  conditions  for  successful 
communication  with  others,  living  or  dead,  by  supernormal  means 
are  very  delicate.  Everything  must  be  done  to  encourage  favor¬ 
able  states  of  mind  in  both  medium  and  communicator.  For  this 
reason  laymen  often  get  better  results  than  scientific  men.  At  any 
rate  the  above  method  should  be  tried  before  any  other. 

These  are  only  general  suggestions  and  not  at  all  hard  and  fast 
rules.  Much  depends  on  the  experience  and  good  judgment  of  the 
experimenter.  There  may  be  further  important  conditions  to  be 
learned,  either  subordinate  or  in  addition  to  these.  But  they  will 
have  to  be  ascertained  by  investigation  in  the  future.  My  own 
experience  is  not  large  enough  to  enable  me  to  dictate  to  others, 
or  to  say  that  such  directions  need  not  be  revised.  They  are  tenta¬ 
tive  rules,  whose  application  should  be  determined  in  the  individual 
case  by  intelligent  experience.  They  at  least  show  the  complexity 
of  the  situation,  which  is  the  first  and  most  important  fact  to  be 
learned  by  experimenters.  The  phenomena  appear,  superficially, 


410  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

to  be  very  simple,  but  no  greater  delusion  can  be  harbored.  Super¬ 
ficially  the  circumstances  seem  to  resemble  the  conversation  of  one 
person  with  another,  with  nothing  intervening  to  hinder.  This 
notion,  however,  is  a  mistake.  Not  only  may  there  be  two  or  more 
personalities  between  the  communicator  and  the  experimenter,  but 
there  may  be  a  dozen  spirits  cooperating.  The  conditions  for  ob¬ 
taining  messages  are  not  what  they  are  usually  assumed  to  be.  The 
laws  regulating  conversation  between  the  living  do  not  apply.  All 
that  we  perceive  is  the  automatic  writing,  or  the  automatic  voice, 
or  other  phenomenon ;  we  do  not  see  the  complex  machinery  which 
makes  the  manifestation  possible.  Inter-mundane  and  intra-or- 
ganic  difficulties,  perhaps  of  very  large  dimensions,  may  be  present. 
We  do  not  know  their  extent,  but  we  have  abundant  reason  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  they  are  there,  and  the  intelligent  experimenter  will  reckon 
with  their  existence. 

The  medium  herself,  when  possible,  and  certainly  those  surround¬ 
ing  her,  should  make,  so  far  as  possible,  a  verbatim  record  of  what 
occurs,  with  as  much  stress  on  what  those  present  say,  as  on  what 
the  alleged  communicator  says.  Only  in  this  way  can  we  learn  to 
understand  and  to  regulate  the  phenomena.  Everything  should  be 
recorded  in  chronological  order  and  reported  to  some  scientific  body 
that  will  preserve  the  record  for  comparison  with  similar  cases.  In 
the  past  history  of  mankind  everything  of  the  sort,  if  not  recorded, 
has  died  with  the  persons  who  knew  the  facts ;  and  nearly  as  often 
the  record,  when  made,  finds  its  way  into  the  waste-basket,  either 
during  the  life  of  the  persons  interested  or  very  soon  after  they 
have  died.  This  should  not  be.  In  every  other  department  of  ac¬ 
tivity,  whether  of  business  or  science,  we  keep  careful  records;  any 
other  course  means  that  each  generation  has  to  begin  afresh.  Most 
of  our  science,  however,  is  concerned  with  the  physical  world;  and 
the  spiritual  side  of  man  receives  scant  recognition.  But  it  is  the 
whole  of  nature  that  concerns  us  and  affects  the  larger  interests  of 
personality,  and  we  have  no  excuse  for  the  evasion  of  these  larger 
interests. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 


The  explanation  of  certain  experiences  as  due  to  the  action 
of  the  subconscious  plays  a  very  prominent  part  in  modern 
psychological  discussions,  and  in  none  more  than  in  dis¬ 
cussions  of  psychic  research.  For  only  a  little  more  than  a  century 
has  anything  been  definitely  known  about  subconsciousness.  Leib¬ 
nitz  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who  distinctly  recognized  it,  though 
he  gave  it  no  technical  name  beyond  that  of  “  insensible  percep¬ 
tions.”  Sir  William  Hamilton  first  called  attention  to  it  in  Eng¬ 
land  in  his  doctrine  of  “  latent  mental  modifications.”  He  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  Carpenter  with  the  theory  of  “  unconscious  cerebration.” 
In  Germany,  Schopenhauer  gave  the  idea  currency  as  an  important 
influence  on  human  actions ;  he  was  followed  by  Hartmann,  who 
was  inclined  to  explain  everything  by  the  action  of  the  unconscious. 
But  the  term  was  not  accurately  defined,  though  there  could  be  no 
doubt  of  the  existence  of  mental  processes  below  the  threshold  of 
normal  consciousness. 

I  shall  not  go  at  length  into  a  very  large  and  complex  problem. 
Indeed  I  should  not  have  to  allude  to  the  subconscious,  but  for  the 
use  which  has  been  made  of  it  as  an  alternative  explanation  to  the 
spiritistic  interpretation  of  certain  phenomena. 

There  are  three  terms  more  or  less  synonymous  in  this  connec¬ 
tion.  They  are  the  “  unconscious,”  the  “  subconscious,”  and  the 
"  subliminal.”  For  the  general  purposes  of  psychical  research  they 
all  denote  the  same  thing.  There  is  sometimes  need  of  a  distinc¬ 
tion  between  the  ‘‘  unconscious  ”  and  the  ”  subconscious,”  but  there 
is  no  real  difference  between  the  “  subliminal  ”  and  the  “  subcon¬ 
scious,”  and  for  our  present  purpose  there  is  no  need  to  insist  upon 
technical  differences.  Occurrences  whose  cause  lies  within  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  the  experiences,  and  which  show  no  satisfactory  evidence 
of  the  activity  of  spirits,  may  be  said  to  be  caused  by  the  subcon¬ 
scious  mind  of  the  subject. 

4U 


412  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Though  the  three  terms  are  practically  synonymous,  they  are 
more  or  less  equivocal.  In  their  relation  to  normal  consciousness 
the  terms  indicate  every  function  of  the  mind  and  body  that  is  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  ken  of  normal  consciousness.  In  a  positive  sense 
they  denote  certain  mental  states  for  which  we  have  indirect  evi¬ 
dence,  and  which  may  have  characteristics  much  like  those  of  con¬ 
scious  processes.  Normal  consciousness  includes  those  mental 
states  of  which  we  have  direct  knowledge,  such  as  sensation,  self- 
consciousness,  reasoning,  emotion,  pleasure  and  pain,  and  volition. 
Hence,  in  a  negative  sense,  the  terms  “  subliminal,”  “  subconscious¬ 
ness  ”  and  often  the  “  unconscious  ”  refer  merely  to  experiences 
that  are  not  subject  to  direct  introspection.  In  the  widest  import 
of  such  a  negative  meaning,  intelligence  would  be  wholly  excluded 
from  subconscious  phenomena.  Harmoniously  with  this  view  many 
persons  actually  maintained  for  a  long  time  that  such  phenomena 
were  wholly  mechanical  or  non-intelligent.  But  they  were  con¬ 
fronted  by  the  fact  that  certain  phenomena  not  within  the  ken  of 
normal  introspection  show  all  the  characteristics  of  intelligent 
ability  except  that  of  being  directly  known.  In  other  words,  there 
is  overwhelming  evidence  of  intelligent  action  beyond  the  compass 
of  introspection.  That  sufficed  to  give  standing  to  the  use  of  such 
tenus  as  “  subconscious  ”  and  “  subliminal  ”  mentality. 

While  we  may  regard  them  as  purely  negative  terms  —  that  is, 
as  denoting  the  mental  states  of  which  we  are  not  conscious,  we 
cannot  deny  that  the  processes  thus  included  have  the  characteristics 
of  intelligent  action,  which  is  so  fundamental  an  element  in  self- 
consciousness.  Hence  it  becomes  necessary  in  the  discussion  of  the 
psychological  problem  to  define  the  term  more  accurately  than  by 
its  purely  negative  import. 

Some  people  regard  the  subconscious  as  equivalent  to  a  “  sec¬ 
ondary  personality,”  something  apart  from  and  independent  of  the 
subject.  These  people  suppose  that  secondary  personality  is  like 
a  spirit  foreign  to  the  body  in  which  the  phenomena  manifest  them¬ 
selves.  This  is  a  natural  view  for  those  who  think  of  it  as  excluded 
from  the  normal  personality  and  yet  as  having  an  intelligence  of  its 
own.  But  only  untrained  minds  take  this  view.  For  psychologists 
the  subconscious  or  subliminal  comprises  mental  processes  occur- 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 


413 

ring  in  the  same  organism  with  those  normally  introspected,  but 
not  within  the  ken  of  consciousness.  That  is,  they  are  dissociated 
from  normal  consciousness.  “  Split  consciousness,”  “  dissocia¬ 
tion,”  “  alternating  personality,”  “  secondary  or  multiple  personal¬ 
ity,”  and  similar  terms  denote  that  portion  of  the  mental  life  that 
is  not  directly  known  to  the  subject.  But  these  states  are  mental 
functions  like  the  normal  in  all  respects  save  that  of  accessibility  to 
introspection. 

The  subconscious,  therefore,  is  a  name  for  mental  phenomena 
dissociated  from  those  directly  or  introspectively  known.  It  does 
not  denote  separate  or  new  functions  of  the  mind,  but  the  same 
functions  or  activities  as  those  of  normal  consciousness.  That  is 
to  say,  the  mind  is  one,  though  its  processes  are  many.  We  have 
not  yet  distinctly  defined  the  area  of  this  subconscious.  We  know 
that  it  extends  beyond  the  scope  of  normal  action,  but  where  it 
ceases  we  do  not  know.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  it  is  unlimited, 
for  there  is  evidence  enough  to  the  contrary.  In  fact,  it  shows 
evidence  of  being  at  least  as  limited  as  normal  consciousness  in  its 
reach,  though  it  performs  feats  impossible  to  the  normal  mind. 

That  the  subconscious  or  subliminal  exists  is  clearly  proved  by 
somnambulism  and  hypnosis.  In  these  conditions  a  man  acts  ex¬ 
actly  as  if  normal;  but,  in  his  normal  state,  he  remembers  nothing 
that  he  has  done  while  asleep,  unless  the  somnambulism  or  hypnosis 
is  very  light.  This  state  is  probably  similar  to  that  of  dreaming. 
We  are  aware  of  our  ordinary  dreams,  which  evidently  occur  in  a 
transitional  state  between  normal  consciousness  and  true  sleep  or 
total  unconsciousness.  But  we  have  evidence  through  the  study 
both  of  somnambulism  and  hypnosis  and  of  instances  of  dissocia¬ 
tion  that  some  mental  activities  do  not  emerge  either  in  dreams  or 
in  normal  consciousness.  They  are  true  subliminal  activities. 

In  the  margin  of  normal  consciousness  we  may  find  traces  of  the 
subconsciousness,  for  example  in  abstraction  and  reverie.  In  these 
states  we  narrow  the  field  of  direct  attention  so  that,  though  the 
mind  may  be  distinctly  aware  of  some  objects  or  events  in  the  nar¬ 
rower  field  of  attention,  it  may  not  notice  other  incidents,  even 
while  it  acts  on  the  supposition  of  their  presence  and  influence. 
Here  the  fields  of  normal  and  subliminal  consciousness  interpene- 


414  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

trate.  If  we  read  a  book  and  become  absorbed  in  it,  any  excitement 
of  the  mind  will  produce  effects  in  the  hand  holding  a  pencil,  though 
the  reader  may  be  unaware  of  any  motion  in  the  hand.  Freud  has 
shown  that  our  dreams  may  reflect  long-lost  memories  in  symtolic 
forms,  though  we  cannot  ourselves  explain  their  meaning  or  recall 
the  facts  until  the  psycho-analyst  deciphers  them  and  reminds  us 
of  them.  In  cases  of  secondary  personality,  like  those  of  Ansel 
Bourne,  Charles  Brewin,  and  Doris  Fischer,  there  is  a  perfect  simu¬ 
lation  of  real  and  distinct  personalities,  of  which  the  normal  self 
knows  nothing.  They  may  be  caused  by  foreign  influences,  but 
there  is  no  internal  evidence  of  such  a  source. 

The  recognition  of  the  subconscious  is  important  as  a  limitation 
to  the  application  of  spiritistic  explanations.  Before  the  discovery 
of  subliminal  activities,  philosophers  and  laymen  alike  sought  the 
explanation  of  phenomena  not  known  to  normal  consciousness  in 
causes  outside  the  mind.  The  Cartesian  philosophy  regarded  con¬ 
sciousness  as  the  necessary  property  or  function  of  the  mind,  and 
any  fact  not  known  by  it  was  regarded  as  caused  by  something  else 
than  the  mind.  Hence  this  system  offered  good  excuse  for  appeal¬ 
ing  to  the  spiritistic  explanation  wherever  intelligent  activity  was 
manifested,  which  could  not  be  referred  to  the  normal  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  subject.  But  the  discovery  of  subconscious  mental  ac¬ 
tivities  made  it  necessary  to  limit  the  number  of  cases  in  which  the 
hypothesis  of  foreign  influences  was  needed  to  explain  the  phe¬ 
nomena.  The  theory  of  the  subconscious  was,  therefore,  a  very 
useful  and  convenient  means  for  restraining  hasty  speculation.  It 
explained  phenomena  which  the  untrained  mind  had  been  accus¬ 
tomed  either  to  make  more  mysterious  than  they  were  or  to  refer  to 
foreign  intelligences,  when  their  meaning  or  content  was  to  be 
found  within  the  experience  of  the  organism  in  which  they  appeared. 

But  having  once  found  a  way  to  avoid  resorting  to  explanation  of 
the  facts  as  due  to  spirits,  many  minds  began  unduly  to  extend  the 
meaning  of  the  subconscious.  It  was  endowed  with  powers  for 
which  there  was  either  very  inadequate  evidence  or  no  evidence 
at  all.  The  term  lost  much  of  its  definiteness  in  the  extension  and 
became  a  catch-all  of  explanation  for  people  who  refused  to  believe 
in  the  existence  of  spirits.  It  is  not  a  universal  explanation.  There 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 


415 

is  one  thing  about  it  on  which  all  scientific  psychologists  are  agreed 
—  its  content  is  acquired  either  through  the  normal  channels  of 
sense  or  through  stimuli  that  act  in  the  same  way  as  known  stimuli, 
though  they  may  not  be  immediately  known.  Only  a  few  writers 
like  Mr.  ^jers  ascribe  supernormal  “  faculties  "  to  the  subcon¬ 
scious,  and_regard  it  is  in  rapport  with  a  transcendental  world  by 
virtue  of  those  faculties.  While  this  theory  contains  a  germ  of 
truth,  it  involves  what  the  psychologist  does  not  admit;  namely,  new 
and  transcendent  “  faculties  ”  which  are  conceived  as  wholly  inde¬ 
pendent  of  any  stimulus.  For  the  orthodox  psychologist,  the  sub¬ 
conscious  is  simply  the  mind  acting  without  awareness  of  the  stimu¬ 
lus,  and  supernormal  “  faculties  ”  or  functions  are  denied  or  ignored. 
But  those  who  wished  to  limit  or  eliminate  the  appeal  to  spirits 
ascribe  supernormal  functions  to  the  subconscious,  by  which  it  is  en¬ 
dowed  with  ability  directly  to  perceive  the  transcendental. 

As  a  result  of  the  discussion,  we  shall  probably  find  that  the  sub¬ 
conscious  or  subliminal  includes  the  same  functions  of  the  mind 
as  those  of  normal  consciousness,  acting  in  response  to  a  different 
kind  of  stimulus.  For  instance,  Mr.  Myers  ascribed  tehesthesia 
and  telepathy  to  supernormal  functions  of  the  mind.  But  the  psy¬ 
chologist  will  probably  come  to  believe  that  the  functions  are  nor¬ 
mal,  although  the  stimuli  are  different.  Fie  will  then  discriminate 
among  the  facts  with  reference  to  their  evidential  or  non-evidential 
value  in  support  of  any  special  explanation.  This  view  can  be 
taken,  perhaps,  without  setting  aside  what  Mr.  Myers  and  his  col¬ 
leagues  really  had  in  mind.  The  term  “  faculties  ”  may  be  more 
elastic  than  at  first  appears;  but  it  is  an  unfortunate  term.  In 
order  to  avoid  confusion,  the  present  writer  thinks  that  it  might  be 
cast  aside  in  favor  of  the  theory  that  the  subconscious  is  identical 
with  normal  consciousness  in  function,  though  its  contents  may 
not  be  identical  with  those  of  the  normal  mind.  This  theory  con¬ 
ceives  it  as  having  definite  limits,  such  as  we  now  apply  to  normal 
intelligence.  We  have  now  only  to  ascertain  what  stimuli  affect  ) 
the  normal  consciousness  and  what  stimuli  affect  the  subliminal. 
In  this  way  the  whole  problem  of  estimating  the  supernormal  be¬ 
comes  one  of  rapport,  and  not  of  new  "  faculties.”  That  is,  nor-  j 
mal  rapport  with  the  physical  world  gives  us  purely  physical  knowl- 


4i6  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

edge,  while  rapport  with  a  transcendental  world  gives  us  transcen¬ 
dental  knowledge.  The  difference  between  the  two  is  merely  that 
between  kinds  of  stimulus  and  not  between  endowments  of  the 
mind,  though  the  two  points  of  view  may  ultimately  be  unified 
or  reconciled.  What  I  want  here  to  emphasize  is  the  importance 
of  the  living  mind  in  determining  the  form  of  the  knowledge  which 
is  derived  from  either  type  of  stimulus. 

The  value  of  this  conception  of  the  subconscious  is,  that  it  recon¬ 
ciles  subconscious  activity  with  spirit  agencies  while  it  admits  that 
the  evidence  for  the  action  of  spirits  is  limited.  The  ordinary 
view  of  the  subliminal  is  that  it  is  necessarily  a  substitute  for  spirits 
as  an  explanation.  The  two  hypotheses  are  supposed  to  be  mutually 
exclusive,  though,  in  the  opinion  of  the  present  writer,  both  may  be 
applicable  to  the  phenomena.  The  subliminal  functions  of  the 
mind  may  be  absolutely  necessary  for  securing  messages  from  spir¬ 
its,  instead  of  vitiating  the  reality  of  such  messages.  That,  at  least, 
is  the  view  taken  by  the  present  writer.  He  fully  recognizes  that 
many  phenomena  by  the  subconscious  are  not  evidence  of  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  spirits,  but  may  be  traced  to  subjective  sources,  or  to  ordi¬ 
nary  physical  stimuli  not  normally  perceived;  but  he  also  insists 
that  the  subconscious  may  be  the  instrument  for  the  receipt  and 
transmission  of  foreign,  transcendental  stimuli.  That  is  to  say, 
the  hypothesis  of  the  subconscious  does  not  deny  the  reality  of 
spirits,  but  only  limits  the  kind  of  facts  which  may  be  taken  as 
evidence  of  their  action. 

This  theory  assumes  a  closer  relation  with  a  transcendental  world 
than  the  orthodox  view  of  the  subconscious  implies,  and  at  the 
same  time  provides  the  means  for  distinguishing  between  the 
functions  of  the  subconscious  and  its  contents.  In  the  first  place, 
I  have  explained  that  its  functions  are  those  of  the  normal  mind; 
in  my  conception  of  its  relation  to  the  transcendental  world,  I  as¬ 
sume  that  its  functions  remain  the  same,  and  that  its  objects  of 
knowledge  differ  only  as  the  stimulus  differs  from  that  of  normal 
impressions.  Our  normal  isolation  from  a  transcendental  world 
is  only  the  inability  to  be  stimulated  by  it ;  and _a  psychic  is  simply 
a  person  who  can  overcome  that  isolation  and  come  into  rapport 
with  a  transcendental  stimulus.  Then,  in  accordance  with  well- 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 


417 

known  laws  of  normal  experience,  this  transcendental  stimulus  will 
be  represented  in  the  reaction  of  the  living  mind  according  to  its 
nature  and  habits.  Hence  the  influence  of  the  subconscious  on  the 
form  of  the  messages.  We  do  not  yet  know  the  nature  of  that 
foreign  stimulus.  If  it  be  instigative,  it  is  like  any  physical  stimu¬ 
lus  which  merely  sets  mental  functions  in  operation,  and  the  result 
will  be  determined  by  the  nature  or  experience  of  the  subject  af¬ 
fected.  For  instance,  a  blow  on  the  head  will  make  us  see  “  stars.” 
Normally  visual  reactions  take  the  form  of  responses  to  luminous 
stimuli ;  but  when  the  stimulus  is  tactual  and  the  reaction  or  response 
is  visual,  there  is  an  abnormal  phenomenon  or  a  reaction,  as  we 
would  say,  inappropriate  to  the  stimulus.  An  overloaded  stomach 
produces  nightmare  or  hallucinations  in  sleep.  In  these  cases  the 
stimulus  is  only  instigative.  But  a  transmissive  stimulus  produces 
results  less  symbolical.  The  thought  of  the  foreign  agent  seems  to 
be  transferred  intact  and  literally.  In  some  cases  the  form  may 
be  symbolical,  but  the  transmission  may  nevertheless  be  direct.  At 
any  rate  the  transmission  often  seems  to  be  exactly  like  that  of 
the  telephone  or  telegraph,  in  which  the  very  language  of  the  com¬ 
municator  is  reported.  In  such  cases  the  subconscious  seems  to 
have  no  part  in  the  process. 

But  the  fact  is,  that  the  subconscious  is  still  the  vehicle  of  trans¬ 
mission.  Its  functions  are  employed,  while  its  contents,  normal 
knowledge  and  expression,  are  suppressed  or  inhibited.  It  becomes 
a  more  or  less  passive  instrument  for  the  conveyance  of  knowledge 
rather  than  an  agent  for  the  interpretation  of  stimuli  or  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  its  own  reaction  aroused  by  an  instigative  stimulus.  In  this 
way  we  keep  the  subliminal  as  a  necessary  means  of  intercommuni¬ 
cation  between  the  two  worlds,  while  we  provide  an  explanation 
for  the  variety  in  the  products  of  the  connection. 

This  conception  is  not  simple.  The  part  played  by  the  subliminal 
should  be  consistent  with  the  actual  complexity  of  the  phenomena, 
and  the  view  just  taken  of  it  provides  that  very  desideratum.  It 
shows  the  complexities  to  consist  in  the  variety  of  connections  made 
between  the  two  worlds,  and  at  the  same  time  relates  these  realms 
in  a  manner  suggested  by  the  law  of  continuity  in  evolution,  which 
shows  that  many  things  are  more  closely  related  than  is  at  first 


4i8  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

apparent.  The  slightest  examination  of  the  facts  will  show  that 
the  dividing  line  between  normal  and  supernormal  experience  is 
often  hard  to  draw;  it  is  in  that  border-land  that  we  should  seek 
to  discover  the  causes  which  will  explain  the  experiences,  though 
we  must  demand  a  radically  different  type  of  phenomena  as  defini¬ 
tive  evidence  of  those  agencies.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  evidence 
to  prove  the  existence  of  telepathy  must  be  facts  clearly  exceptional 
in  their  nature;  that  is,  obviously  inexplicable  by  ordinary  causes. 
But  the  explanation  of  such  facts  must  be  found  in  processes  that 
will  at  least  articulate  with  known  causes.  These  known  causes 
will  be  such  as  lie  on  the  border-land  of  the  totally  new,  and  the 
totally  new  must  find  some  point  of  contact  with  the  old,  before  it 
can  be  satisfactorily  explained.  Hence  while  evidence  must  be 
found  in  the  new,  explanation  must  be  found  in  the  already  known. 

Now  the  subconscious  lies  on  the  border  between  the  normal  and 
the  supernormal  realms,  and  may  serve  to  bridge  what  seems  to 
many  people  to  be  an  impassable  chasm ;  namely,  that  between  nor¬ 
mal  and  supernormal  experience.  Its  functions,  so  far  as  a  tran¬ 
scendental  world  is  concerned,  are  latent,  like  the  body  and  mind 
of  the  infant  before  it  is  born,  developed  in  a  prenatal  condition 
for  action  in  a  postnatal  life.  With  powers  of  appreciating  stimuli 
that  the  grosser  senses  do  not  perceive,  it  may,  on  favorable  occa¬ 
sions,  be  percipient  of  stimuli  from  a  spiritual  world,  whether  that 
world  be  constituted  by  individual  minds  or  by  a  general  reality 
capable  of  making  impressions,  like  matter,  on  delicate  sense-organs. 
The  subconscious  is  thus  intermediate  between  a  purely  physical  and 
a  purely  spiritual  existence. 

We  must  not  suppose  that  the  recognition  of  the  subliminal  de¬ 
prives  us  of  the  right  to  consider  the  spiritistic  hypothesis  in  its 
proper  place.  The  concept  of  the  subconscious  legitimately  enough 
limits  the  nature  of  the  evidence  for  the  activity  of  spirits;  but, 
like  telepathy,  it  does  not  define  the  character  of  the  explanation 
to  be  accepted.  Indeed,  if  we  regard  the  subconscious  after  the 
analogy  above  mentioned  —  namely,  as  latent  functions  waiting  for 
expression  after  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  we  may  find  in  it  a 
clue  to  what  the  spiritual  life  after  death  may  be.  The  functions 
of  the  body  are  foreshadowed  by  conditions  latent  before  birth;  so 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 


419 

the  subconscious,  with  its  present  activities  in  dreams,  delirium, 
hallucinations,  and  even  normal  imagination,  may  forecast  the 
larger  exercise  of  the  same  functions  after  death  in  the  creation  of 
apparent  reality. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  introduce  speculation  into  a  purely 
scientific  discussion  of  the  place  of  the  subliminal.  All  that  we 
require  for  the  present  is  a  clear  recognition  that  the  subconscious 
is  not  a  rival  explanation  of  facts,  except  in  a  IJmited  field,  and  that 
it  may  be  the  connecting  link  between  the  transcendental  and  the 
physical  worlds.  The  recognition  of  this  connection  will  remove 
half  the  objections  commonly  raised  against  belief  in  a  spiritual 
existence.  We  can  believe  that  the  subconscious  is  such  a  medium 
w'ithout  fully  understanding  its  nature,  w'hile  the  attempt  to  make 
of  it  an  explanation  excluding  the  influence  of  spirits  makes  it  nec¬ 
essary  to  enlarge  the  conception  of  its  powers  to  such  stupendous 
proportions  that  it  becomes  more  difficult  to  believe  in  it  than  in  the 
spirits  themselves.  The  conception  of  subliminal  activity  cannot 
supplant  the  spiritistic  hypothesis,  in  cases  which  furnish  undoubted 
proof  of  the  supernormal. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

SPIRITUALISM,  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE 


Many  people  of  the  last  generation  had  the  extraordinary 
notion  that  spiritualism  began  with  the  performances  of 
the  Fox  sisters  at  Hydeville,  N.  Y.  But  we  should  bear 
in  mind,  as  earlier  discussion  showed,  that  every  aspect  of  it  can  be 
traced  to  the  belief  of  savages  and  is  found  in  the  folk-lore  of  most 
nations.  The  extraordinary  impetus  which  spiritualism  received 
at  the  hands  of  the  Fox  sisters,  and  perhaps  of  Judge  Edmunds  and 
Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  between  1848  and  i860,  has  only  given  it 
a  prominence  which  otherwise  it  might  not  have  had.  Probably 
the  new  interest  in  the  subject  was  due  less  to  the  Fox  sisters  than 
to  the  outbreak  among  the  common  people  of  skepticism  regarding 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  immortality.  Most  intelligent  people  had 
come  to  feel  that  Christian  beliefs  required  proof,  and  they  were 
ready  for  any  evidence  of  survival  after  death,  whose  attractive¬ 
ness  to  mankind  had  probably  been  a  stronger  influence  in  creating 
belief  than  had  the  testimony  of  traditional  Christianity. 

The  form  of  the  Fox  phenomena  was  calculated  to  appeal  to  un¬ 
trained  minds,  under  the  influence  of  the  Christian  apologists. 
For  generations,  upholders  of  Christianity  had  defended  miracles; 
one  could  hardly  pick  up  a  volume  of  “  Evidences  of  Christianity  ” 
without  being  impressed  by  the  stress  laid  upon  the  physical  phe¬ 
nomena  of  the  New  Testament  as  the  most  conclusive  evidence  in 
favor  of  Christian  teaching.  The  force  of  the  argument  rested  on 
the  assurance  that  the  stories  of  such  miracles  were  true.  The 
average  Christian  believer  was  not  skeptical  nor  critical ;  but  when 
science  began  to  discredit  the  narratives  of  the  New  Testament, 
public  opinion,  in  so  far  as  it  was  affected  by  science,  also  began  to 
question  such  miracles.  Laymen  generally  were  not  disposed  to 
deny  miracles  which  they  personally  saw,  having  been  inoculated 
for  ages  with  the  conviction  that  they  w'ere  possible;  they  only 

420 


SPIRITUALISM,  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE  421 

applied  the  teaching  of  orthodox  Christianity  when  they  attached 
great  value  to  the  raps  and  knockings  of  the  Fox  sisters.  These 
were  not  evidence  for  the  conclusions  drawn,  but  neither  are  the 
physical  miracles  of  the  New  Testament  evidence  of  the  divine. 
The  occurrences  might,  if  true,  transcend  the  accepted  limitations 
of  natural  action,  but  they  are  not  indicative  of  any  great  intelli¬ 
gence.  This  circumstance,  apparent  in  the  Fox  phenomena,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  rising  influence  of  scientific  discrimination,  evoked 
skepticism  of  spiritualism;  various  other  objections  were  due  some¬ 
times  to  prejudice,  scientific  or  religious,  more  often  to  the  offense 
to  esthetic  and  refinement  given  by  the  people  and  phenomena  con¬ 
cerned. 

The  effect  of  the  public  performances  accompanied  by  an  organ¬ 
ized  effort  to  substitute  demonstrations  for  the  worship  and  serv¬ 
ices  of  the  orthodox  churches,  was  to  perpetuate  the  method  known 
as  spiritualism.  As  the  term  had  been  dropped  from  philosophic 
usage  since  the  time  of  Immanuel  Kant,  it  assumed  the  implications 
and  associations  which  the  vulgarity  of  the  performances  often 
justified.  An  illiterate  person  talking  twaddle  for  gospel,  without 
any  of  the  intellectual  and  esthetic  equipment  of  the  educated  man, 
only  presented  an  unfavorable  contrast  to  the  accepted  methods  of 
teaching  and  preaching.  The  sect  did  too  little  to  expose  fraud, 
and  indeed  often  tolerated  it,  when  the  utmost  intolerance  should 
have  been  practiced.  It  upheld  performances  without  discrimina¬ 
tion  between  frauds  and  honest  people;  and  it  showed  none  of  the 
ethical  or  religious  interest  of  those  who  make  immortality  the  key 
to  a  spiritual  life.  Spiritualism  endeavored  to  protect  its  work  by 
claiming  to  be  a  religion  when  it  got  into  trouble  with  the  police, 
although  it  failed  to  exhibit  the  religious  qualities  of  reverence  and 
spiritual  seriousness. 

It  is  true  that  Christianity  had  a  humble  origin  in  the  same  kind 
of  phenomena,  and  the  record  shows  that  it  had  its  contest  with 
frauds  and  sorcerers.  It  was  not  a  religion  of  intellectual  snobs 
and  esthetes.  Christians  have  no  reason  to  look  down  on  humble 
origins.  But  in  the  course  of  time  they  imbibed  the  tastes  and 
habits  of  the  intellectual  and  esthetic  classes  and  could  not  recognize 
their  own  cousins  among  the  spiritualists.  There  is  no  sin  in  good 


422  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

taste  and  the  cultivation  of  refinement,  but  to  frown  upon  alleged 
evidence  for  survival  because  its  appearance  is  not  esthetically 
inviting  is  a  mistake,  if  not  a  sin.  Respectability  has  much  in  its 
favor,  but  neither  esthetics  nor  respectability  can  be  a  substitute 
for  ethics  or  truth. 

The  spiritualists  were  right  in  their  general  conception  of  what 
would  prove  existence  after  death.  They  did  not  use  a  scientific 
method,  but  they  realized  that  dogma  and  authority  could  not  re¬ 
tain  their  influence  in  an  age  of  freedom  of  thought,  and  that  we 
require  facts,  not  philosophical  or  theological  theories,  to  support 
doctrines.  They  at  least  dimly  saw  the  problem  as  scientific.  But 
they  did  not  organize  their  investigations.  They  were  bent  on 
satisfying  curiosity  and  on  calling  their  performances  religion. 
Consequently  they  brought  their  facts  and  their  methods  into  con¬ 
tempt  among  people  of  intelligence  and  good  taste. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  orthodox  religious  bodies,  whatever  faults 
they  had,  did  have  respect  for  decency  and  culture  and  were  in¬ 
clined  to  insist  upon  suitable  methods  of  investigation.  They  de¬ 
manded  the  practical  application  of  belief  to  the  spiritual  habits 
of  the  individual,  while  many  spiritualists  lent  a  receptive  ear  to 
the  teaching  and  practice  of  men  like  Moses  Hull,  who  should  have 
been  cast  out  of  their  society.  They  assumed  an  attitude  of  hos¬ 
tility  towards  Christianity,  although  claiming  that  it  had  originated 
in  spiritualism.  If  they  had  realized  the  strength  of  the  religious 
mind,  whatever  its  foibles,  they  might  have  made  their  peace  with 
it  and  conquered  it.  But  they  persisted  in  warfare,  manifesting 
none  of  its  virtues  while  asking  for  a  hearing  from  it. 

Enthusiasm,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  need  of  protection  against 
the  police,  on  the  other,  impelled  spiritualists  to  claim  that  their 
performances  constituted  a  religion.  They  thus  invited  compari¬ 
son  with  the  other  religious  bodies  of  the  world,  especially  Christi¬ 
anity,  as  the  central  doctrine  of  both  is  immortality.  But  the  peo¬ 
ple  first  attracted  to  spiritualism  were  free-thinkers,  usually  of  the 
type  that  is  either  opposed  to  Christianity  and  religion  altogether 
or  wants  its  comforts  and  consolations  without  its  dogmas.  In  the 
concentration  of  interest  on  the  experimental  evidence  for  existence 
after  death,  the  ethical  and  spiritual  achievements  of  religion  in 


SPIRITUALISM,  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE  423 

the  life  of  the  individual  were  disregarded.  Interest  was  centered 
on  communication  with  another  world,  and  the  larger  ethical  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  cosmos  and  the  personal  duties  of  the  individual  were 
ignored.  The  whole  emphasis  of  Christianity  was  so  evidently  re¬ 
versed  that  the  system  made  an  excellent  target  for  Christian  at¬ 
tack.  The  opportunity  was  not  lost.  Neither  side  could  see  that 
both  were  right.  Religion  had  lost  the  realization  that  evidence 
was  necessary  for  its  dogmas,  and  spiritualism  had  no  interest  in 
the  ethical  and  spiritual  aims  of  religion.  Christianity  had  forgot¬ 
ten  that  its  system  primarily  emphasized  conduct  and  our  mental 
attitude  towards  our  neighbors.  It  stressed  philosophical  beliefs 
and  dogmas,  not,  it  is  true,  without  some  attention  to  humani- 
tarianism,  but  with  the  tacit  acknowledgment  that  this  was  inci¬ 
dental.  The  spiritualists  forgot  that  Christ  had  deplored  the  inter¬ 
est  of  the  people  in  his  miracles  or  psychic  phenomena,  and  had 
urged  the  promulgation  of  the  ethics  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
as  the  object  of  his  coming.  They  insisted  on  miracles  and  me- 
diumistic  performances  to  the  neglect  of  the  spiritual  life.  No 
wonder  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  rising  tendency  of  religion 
to  reform  its  attitude  on  dogmas  and  to  restore  the  emphasis  to  life 
and  conduct. 

The  one  hope  of  the  church  lies  in  the  revision  of  its  creeds  and 
the  concentration  of  its  interest  on  practical  life.  This  was  its 
original  mission,  which  was  later  supplemented  by  its  emphasis  on 
the  belief  in  immortality.  It  has  met  with  such  hostility  from 
science  and  reason,  and  has  lost  so  many  battles  for  its  dogmas, 
that  it  is  beginning  to  realize  that  it  can  save  itself  only  by  reverting 
to  its  primitive  impulse.  It  must  make  its  peace  with  science. 
Many  of  the  institutions  which  arose  from  Christian  impulses  have 
assumed  secular  form  and  have  even  forgotten  their  origin.  Chari¬ 
ties,  hospitals,  protection  of  children,  chivalry,  and  the  rights  of 
women  have  all  been  derived  from  Christian  ideas.  The  spiritual¬ 
ists  did  not  realize  this.  They  were  intent  on  “  miracles,”  most  of 
them  exhibitions  of  vulgarity  which  the  developed  refinement  of 
most  people  could  not  endure.  Their  performances  might  be  very 
suggestive  to  those  interested  in  facts,  but  not  to  those  who  consid¬ 
ered  good  taste  important.  The  ethical  and  spiritual  impulses  of 


424  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

religion  were  discarded  in  behalf  of  “  demonstrations  ”  of  com¬ 
munication  with  the  dead,  many  of  them  either  pure  conjuring  and 
fraud,  or  incapable  of  being  distinguished  from  these.  No  confi¬ 
dence  could  be  established  in  their  alleged  facts.  The  practical  ap¬ 
plication  of  belief  in  a  future  life  had  no  interest  for  them;  and 
there  is  no  reason  for  concerning  ourselves  with  immortality  unless 
it  has  an  influence  on  ethical  life.  Spiritualism  shows  no  interest 
in  either  science  or  religion.  Unless  it  reforms  its  methods  it  is 
doomed  to  extinction.  Its  first  duty  is  to  take  part  in  the  world’s 
ethical  redemption.  If  it  will  organize  charities  and  hospital  work, 
young  men’s  and  young  women’s  social  and  ethical  institutions,  and 
in  general  reproduce  the  practical  services  of  the  church,  it  can  ex¬ 
pect  to  survive.  If  it  had  done  these  things  from  the  start,  instead 
of  conducting  demonstrations  which  should  have  been  left  to  scien¬ 
tists,  it  might  have  conquered  the  church  and  the  world  fifty  years 
ago. 

Science,  however,  is  beginning  to  take  up  the  subject.  It  will 
conduct  the  proof  or  demonstrations  with  decency  and  order  and 
will  enter  into  sympathy  with  the  primary  and  most  important  im¬ 
pulses  of  religion.  The  best  indication  of  the  doom  which  awaits 
spiritualism  is  seen  in  the  final  results  to  some  of  its  best  credited 
representatives.  The  confession  of  one  of  the  Fox  sisters  made 
it  impossible  to  have  confidence  in  their  performances,  even  though 
some  or  many  of  the  phenomena  may  have  been  genuine.  The  last 
days  of  Slade  show  what  comes  to  those  who  cannot  preserve  moral 
character  while  proving  the  supernormal.  He  is  said  to  have  made 
and  spent  two  fortunes,  and  then  to  have  ended  his  days  in  pov¬ 
erty,  giving  sittings  at  ten  cents  each.  His  methods  and  conduct 
were  such  that  not  only  was  his  private  life  impeached,  but  no  one 
can  defend  any  of  his  claims  or  those  of  his  supporters.  He  is 
almost  totally  forgotten.  Even  Zoellner’s  experiments  with  him 
have  been  discredited ;  and  whatever  of  the  genuine  may  have  been 
included  in  some  of  his  performances  is  nullified  by  proved  fraud. 
The  same  is  true  of  hundreds  of  similar  but  less  conspicuous  me¬ 
diums  and  deceivers.  Spiritualism,  with  such  a  history,  can  never 
attract  intelligent  people ;  the  growing  demand  that  scientific  method 
with  its  discriminating  procedure  shall  take  up  the  subject  will 


SPIRITUALISM,  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE  425 

leave  the  spiritualists  without  either  religious  or  scientific  support. 

Men  usually  form  their  conception  of  a  religion,  a  sect,  or  a  so¬ 
ciety  by  its  most  manifest  characteristics.  If  it  is  ethical  and  prac¬ 
tical,  they  respect  it.  If  it  is  a  mere  show,  they  regard  it  with 
amusement,  as  most  people  regard  spiritualism.  All  that  most  peo¬ 
ple  can  see  in  it  is  a  vaudeville  performance,  and  one  not  well 
conducted  at  that.  Illiterate  mediums  talk  platitudes  or  twaddle  to 
the  audience,  deliver  messages  which  either  are  not  understood  or 
are  without  evidential  value  and  are  so  trivial  and  vulgar  as  to  carry 
no  inspiration  to  intelligent  minds.  They  should  not  then  expect 
the  intellectual  world  to  admire  and  wonder. 

It  is  possible  to  charge  the  other  side,  however,  with  the  opposite 
faults.  Many  of  the  religious  type  are  too  much  influenced  by 
esthetics,  and  many  skeptics  are  too  dogmatic  in  their  denials  to  de¬ 
serve  any  tolerance  from  really  scientific  minds.  Having  followed 
science  in  the  judgment  that  spiritualism  is  either  fraud  or  delusion, 
religious  minds  are  content  with  forms  and  consolatory  faith  and 
pass  by  on  the  other  side,  though  facts  have  stared  them  in  the 
face  ever  since  the  time  of  the  apostles.  On  the  other  hand,  sci¬ 
ence,  content,  without  thorough  inquiry,  to  confine  its  investiga¬ 
tions  to  the  physical  world  in  which  it  has  achieved  so  much,  will 
not  open  its  eyes  to  anomalies  in  the  realm  of  mind  and  nature,  and 
so  degenerates  into  a  dogmatism  exactly  like  that  of  theology. 
Spiritualism  is  thus  ground  to  pieces  between  the  upper  and  nether 
millstones  of  these  two  points  of  view.  It  can  redeem  itself  only 
by  making  its  peace  with  both,  by  submitting  its  claims  to  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  science  and  returning  to  the  ethical  work  of  the  church. 

Science,  in  its  contrast  to  theology,  resorts  to  present  experience, 
or  facts  immediately  verifiable,  instead  of  to  faith  in  authority  and 
tradition.  It  may  insist  that  this  was  also  the  original  attitude  of 
religion,  and  that  Christianity  was  a  scientific  movement  which  ap¬ 
pealed  to  facts  instead  of  authority  for  its  belief  in  survival.  This 
is  indeed  true;  and  for  this  reason  science  may  well  demand  the 
use  of  its  method  to  verify  or  to  refute  the  claims  of  the  past.  In 
its  relation  to  spiritualism, ^science  insists  iiot  only  on  strict  determi¬ 
nation  of  conditions,  but  also  on  cumulative  and  collective,  not 


426  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  honesty  of  the  subject  is  not  a  sufficient  guarantee  of  results, 
though  it  is  important.  Any  one  is  likely  to  make  false  observations 
and  mistakes  of  judgment,  which  can  be  eliminated  only  by  the  col¬ 
lection  of  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  genuine  and  thoroughly  ac¬ 
credited  facts  to  eliminate  unconscious  error.  This  condition  the 
spiritualists  have  wholly  neglected.  They  have  no  scientific  rec¬ 
ords,  and  their  “  demonstrations  ”  depend  on  faith  for  even  so  much 
interest  as  would  suggest  investigation.  They  prove  nothing  scien¬ 
tifically.  Their  work  is  often  striking  enough  to  arouse  attention 
and  challenge  investigation,  and  has  perhaps  served  to  keep  interest 
in  the  subject  alive.  But  science  must  work  by  laboratory  meth¬ 
ods,  which  can  control  the  conditions  and  produce  trustwoithy 
results.  It  must  multiply  the  facts  indefinitely  and  be  able  to  offer 
some  rational  explanation  of  their  complications  in  order  to  obtain 
any  consensus  of  opinion  in  favor  of  the  supernormal.  If  spir¬ 
itualists  would  only  recognize  this  necessity  and  then  devote  them¬ 
selves  to  the  natural  correlate  of  immortality,  namely,  the  ethical 
regeneration  of  a  world  saturated  with  materialism,  they  not  only 
would  bring  their  cause  into  better  repute,  but  also  would  refute 
most  of  the  objections  directed  against  them. 

Psychic  researchers  have  had  to  coin  the  term  “  spiritism  ”  in 
order  to  avoid  the  bad  associations  of  the  term  “  spiritualism.” 
Both  words  refer  to  the  same  type  of  facts ;  -but  spiritism  implies 
that  these  facts  have  been  examined  more  carefully  than  spiritual¬ 
ism  demands.  If  there  is  any  difference  at  all  between  spiritism 
and  spiritualism  it  lies  only  in  this:  that^iritism  is  supported  by 
facts  much  better  accredited  than  most  of  the  data  of  the  spiritual- 
ists. 

I  make  this  statement  because  I  am  well  aware  of  both  the  advan¬ 
tages  and  disadvantages  of  names.  Most  people  think  only  in 
words,  in  the  meaning  which  ordinary  experience  gives  them.  If 
they  are  spectators  of  a  public  spiritualistic  performance  and  find 
it  an  offense  against  good  taste  and  intelligence,  they  form  their 
entire  conception  of  the  term  “  spiritualism  ”  from  the  appearance 
of  that  performance.  Hence  it  is  often  necessary  to  coin  new 
words,  since  it  is  hard  to  divest  the  traditional  terms  of  their  asso¬ 
ciations.  To  avoid  misunderstanding  from  those  who  are  inclined 


SPIRITUALISM,  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE  427 

to  ridicule  instead  of  to  argue,  it  may  be  necessary  to  indicate  a 
distinction  by  a  new  word  and  then  to  force  men  to  recognize  the 
real  identity  of  the  new  and  the  old  terms.  But  the  facts  are  the 
same,  whatever  the  words  used  to  express  them.  The  intelligent 
man  will  concentrate  his  attention  on  judging  these  facts,  and  will 
not  allow  critics  to  discredit  them  by  the  mere  use  of  names. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

VERY  few  would  deny  the  eclipse  of  religion  in  this  age, 
especially  when  measured  by  the  conception  of  it  which  the 
past  has  afforded.  They  might  save  a  discouraging  view 
by  changing  their  conception  of  it,  as  most  people  have  done  and 
perhaps  always  will  do  with  any  force  so  perennial  as  that  which 
has  embodied  itself  under  that  term.  It  would  seem  far  more 
doubtful  to  affirm  the  eclipse  of  medicine  in  the  age  when  it  seems 
to  be  in  the  very  midst  of  its  triumphs  and  to  promise  still  more 
wonderful  achievements.  Medicine  would  be  claimed  by  the  phy¬ 
sician  as  the  very  last  department  of  human  endeavor  to  be  over¬ 
shadowed.  The  university  man  devoted  to  psychology  also  would 
not  accept  the  intimation  that  his  subject  is  under  a  shadow.  But 
his  contention  would  not  be  so  clear  as  the  physician’s.  He  cannot 
point  to  any  such  achievements  as  the  physiologist  can  summon  in 
his  defence.  Besides,  one  indisputable  fact  shows  its  subordinate 
place  among  the  successful  sciences.  Once  it  was  much  like  phi¬ 
losophy,  the  queen  of  the  sciences.  Indeed  it  was  itself  the  very 
basis  of  philosophy.  But  with  the  partition  of  that  great  dominion 
it  was  reduced  in  rank  and  the  physical  usurped  the  place  of  the 
mental  in  the  reflective  world.  “  Philosophy,”  says  Lotze,  “  is  a 
mother  wounded  by  the  ingratitude  of  her  children.  Once  she  was 
all  in  all.  Mathematics  and  Astronomy,  Physics  and  Physiology, 
no  less  than  Ethics  and  Politics,  sprang  from  her  loins.  But  the 
offspring  soon  set  up  establishments  of  their  own,  each  the  earlier  as 
it  made  vigorous  progress  under  the  influence  of  parental  authority. 
Then  conscious  of  what  they  had  created  by  their  own  endeavors 
they  turned  against  the  comprehensive  scope  of  philosophy,  which 
could  not  follow  them  into  the  details  of  this  new  lift,  and  became 
weary  of  the  everlasting  repetitions  without  progress  which  had 
characterized  the  parental  career.  At  last,  when  each  suckling  had 

428 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  429 

attained  its  independence,  it  left  philosophy  in  undisputed  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  insoluble  problems  of  the  universe.  With  this  ancient 
portion  she  still  sits  reflecting  on  the  old  riddles  -with  the  hope  of 
holding  fast  to  the  central  interest  of  human  knowledge.” 

Psychology  has  had  to  share  in  the  decline,  partly  because  she 
sought  independence  and  partly  because  she  had  no  general  mis¬ 
sion  for  the  world,  and  to-day  she  depends  mainly  on  the  tradi¬ 
tional  place  she  has  had  in  the  curriculum  of  human  knowledge. 
Psychology  has  divested  itself  of  all  interest  in  the  existence  of  a 
soul  and,  to  save  an  open  defence  of  materialism,  employs  the  term 
“  mind  ”  to  denote  mental  states  whose  basis  it  will  not  discuss. 
It  is  a  technical  study  for  neophytes  and  idlers;  unless,  perchance,  it 
can  detect  crime  or  claim  importance  in  pedagogy,  for  which  it  has 
done  little  or  nothing  up  to  date.  It  has  no  message  for  common 
life,  as  had  the  doctrines  of  Plato  and  Christianity.  It  is  a  kind 
of  learned  amusement,  or  a  Brodzvisscnschaft  for  those  who  can¬ 
not  otherwise  earn  bread.  It  lives  on  the  momentum  of  its  tradi¬ 
tional  importance,  and  would  have  been  cast  out  of  education  long 
ago  but  for  fear  of  the  consequences  of  materialism,  which  all  hold 
but  will  not  avow.  It  is  not  a  propaedeutic  to  other  knowledge  but 
the  refuge  of  those  who  either  get  their  wisdom  by  looking  into  their 
navels  or  escape  a  dirt-philosophy  only  by  refusing  to  soil  their 
hands. 

Medicine,  however,  will  claim  exemption  from  this  verdict.  As 
already  remarked,  its  practical  achievements  are  second  only  to 
those  of  physics  and  chemistry.  It  will  vehemently  deny  any  accu¬ 
sation  of  retrogression.  It  will  passionately  resent  the  charge  that 
the  shadows  are  falling  on  its  course.  But  in  spite  of  all  this  I 
shall  insist  that  it  is  under  an  eclipse.  We  do  not  see  it  because  we 
have  become  accustomed  to  the  darkness.  The  achievements  it  has 
effected,  no  one  will  dispute;  but  their  importance  is  to  be  meas¬ 
ured  solely  according  to  our  standards  of  value.  If  our  philosophy, 
whether  intuitive  or  reasoned,  conscious  or  unconscious,  be  ma¬ 
terialistic  we  shall  see  no  eclipse.  We  shall  rejoice  in  the  darkness 
and  not  be  aware  of  the  light.  We  shaill  be  living  like  the  blind  fish 
in  Mammoth  Cave.  We  deny  the  existence  of  light  because  we 
refuse  to  look  at  it.  It  is  man’s  satisfaction  with  existence  as  he 


430  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

finds  it  that  prevents  his  looking  for  anything  further,  especially  if 
he  feels  the  weight  of  evidence  to  be  against  the  existence  of  more 
than  presents  itself  to  superficial  vision.  When  we  insist  on  re¬ 
maining  at  the  surface  we  do  not  see  below  it.  This  is  what 
materialism  does.  It  confines  man  to  the  external  plane  of  exist¬ 
ence.  And  we  are  materialists  when  we  take  physical  science  as 
our  measure  of  reality. 

Men,  individually  and  collectively,  are  governed  by  their  con¬ 
ceptions  of  the  cosmos.  They  may  not  always  be  clearly  aware  of 
these  conceptions,  or  at  least  of  their  origin  in  tradition  or  environ¬ 
ment.  But  however  they  have  acquired  it,  all  have  some  concep¬ 
tion  of  a  relation  to  things  in  general,  and  this  conception  deter¬ 
mines  their  conduct.  If  man  adopts  the  doctrine  that  matter  is 
the  prius  and  limit  of  reality  he  makes  himself  the  subject  of  what 
he  must  forever  estimate  as  inferior  to  himself.  Matter  he  re¬ 
gards  as  inert  and  unintelligent,  though  he  admits  that  in  the  for¬ 
tuitous  combinations  of  its  elements  intelligence  escapes  as  an 
accident.  But  he  regards  matter  as  the  womb  and  the  grave  of  all 
that  he  prizes.  He  will  not  worship  what  he  has  to  conquer  in 
order  to  live.  A  universe  that  offers  no  permanent  development 
for  intelligence  and  morality  in  the  individual  must  encourage  pes¬ 
simism  and  despair.  We  may  conceal  all  this  from  ourselves  in 
the  pleasures  of  outwitting  the  power  that  will  extinguish  us  if  we 
do  not  conquer  it.  Material  satisfactions  —  the  freedom  that 
wealth  may  bring  from  the  hardship  of  toil  and  suffering  —  may 
hide  from  us  for  a  while  the  ugly  Medusa-head  of  nature,  but 
when  we  come  to  pay  our  bonds  we  are  confronted  with  the  terrific 
oracle  of  CEdipus :  “  May’st  thou  ne’er  know  the  truth  of  what 

thou  art.”  Only  a  spiritual  conception  of  reality  will  rescue  ideal¬ 
ism  from  the  clutches  of  a  dark  fate.  The  stability  of  nature  and 
the  preservation  of  peaceful  societies  hide  the  gulfs  over  which  we 
live.  But  when  nature  reverts  to  chaos,  in  tornado  or  earthquake, 
we  discover  the  frailty  of  all  human  power.  “  The  earth,  green 
as  she  looks,  rests  everywhere  on  dread  foundations  were  we  fur¬ 
ther  down,  and  Pan  to  whose  music  the  nymphs  dance  has  a  cry 
in  him  that  can  drive  all  men  distracted.”  Famine  and  disease  will 
make  the  stoutest  hearts  quail  unless  education  and  courage  have 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  431 

trained  them  to  accept  the  issue  in  defiance.  No  religious  faith 
teaches  the  worship  of  impersonal  forces.  Reverence  is  reserved 
for  something  else  than  matter.  Unless  the  divine  can  be  found 
somewhere  in  the  mysterious  labyrinths  of  nature,  man  accepts 
battle  with  nature’s  forces  with  the  assurance  only  of  death  and 
with  no  hope  of  salvation.  He  grits  his  teeth  and  plunges  into  the 
war  without  expectation  of  either  giving  or  receiving  quarter. 
While  obedience  to  the  laws  of  nature  may  bring  him  much,  it  is 
the  obedience  of  prudence,  not  of  reverence.  It  requires  another 
philosophy  to  subdue  the  hostility  of  the  mind  to  forces  that  have 
the  power  to  crush,  but  neither  the  intelligence  nor  the  mercy  to 
save.  Materialism  can  only  exalt  the  remorseless  sway  of  force, 
the  pitiless  Juggernaut  of  Time  crushing  its  own  worshipers.  Wise 
men,  of  course,  will  not  whine  over  tasks  that  cannot  be  done  or 
hopes  that  cannot  be  realized,  but  they  would  be  happier  if  the 
cosmos  offered  something  for  idealism  to  cherish.  Materialism  is 
a  good  antidote  for  superstition  and  ignorance,  and  it  is  the  philoso¬ 
phy  which  forces  attention  to  the  fixed  uniformity  of  nature;  but 
personality  can  find  no  ideals  in  impersonality,  and  it  is  here  that  this 
philosophy  fails  to  satisfy  the  desires  of  man.  Hence  he  is  impelled 
to  penetrate  the  veil  into  the  inner  sanctuary  of  nature  in  the  hope 
of  finding  a  satisfaction  that  materialism  cannot  give. 

Among  savages,  religion  and  medicine  were  the  same  thing. 
When  Greece  shook  off  the  incubus  of  polytheism,  medicine  was 
frankly  materialistic,  having  discarded  religion.  It  was  left  to 
Plato  to  revive  interest  in  the  mind  and  in  such  religion  as  philoso¬ 
phy  could  support  at  that  time.  In  Christianity  all  three  joined 
hands.  Psychology  offered  a  philosophic  defence  for  the  existence 
and  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  medicine  took  care  of  the  body  in 
the  interest  of  the  soul.  After  the  revival  of  science,  each  went 
its  own  way,  medicine  into  materialism  and  psychology  into  idealism 
or  spiritualism.  But  materialism  triumphed  and  even  subjugated 
psychology  to  its  own  services,  and  left  religion  without  sympathy 
or  protection.  The  great  ethical  ideals  that  made  the  mind  more 
important  than  the  body  have  now  retired  into  the  limbo  of  illusion, 
and  a  full  stomach  is  considered  a  greater  desideratum  than  any 
amount  of  penance  or  piety.  Materialism,  whether  avowed  or 


432  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

denied,  has  absorbed  every  form  of  activity  and  has  extended  its 
influence  over  every  institution.  Religion  lives  only  upon  tradi¬ 
tions.  The  great  belief  in  a  soul  and  in  its  survival  of  bodily  death 
has  crumbled  into  ashes,  except  for  that  faithful  class  which  either 
stops  thinking  or  turns  to  science  for  its  hopes.  Medicine  has 
taken  charge  of  all  that  is  worth  living  for,  and  those  who  have 
money  and  leisure  may  worship  in  soft  pews  and  listen  to  the 
ritual,  or  to  desperate  efforts  to  adjust  worn-out  creeds  to  a  philoso¬ 
phy  which  is  incompatible  with  them. 

But  the  last  twenty-five  years  have  developed  a  movement  which 
is  now  like  only  a  small  cloud  on  the  horizon  but  which  bids  fair 
soon  to  change  the  whole  scientific  and  philosophic  tendency  of  the 
age.  Just  at  the  moment  when  religion  seemed  to  be  dying  the  new 
movement  came  into  sight,  and  yet  religion  turned  away  its  face. 
It,  too,  has  become  saturated  with  materialism  and  goes  stumbling 
about,  blindly  groping  for  light  and  protection,  while  its  erstwhile 
enemy,  medicine,  wears  the  crown  of  victory.  The  primary  ob¬ 
ject  of  religion  was  to  save  the  soul ;  that  of  medicine  to  save  the 
body.  As  long  as  psychology  could  maintain  that  there  was  a  soul 
and  that  its  preservation  was  more  important  than  that  of  the  body, 
religion  reigned  supreme  and  medicine  occupied  a  secondary  place. 
The  coffers  of  mankind  were  poured  into  the  church.  Money  and 
salvation  went  together.  But  materialism  has  turned  the  tables. 
Medicine  is  now  more  lucrative  than  priestcraft.  We  do  not  be¬ 
lieve  we  have  any  souls,  but  we  are  sure  of  our  bodies,  pace  the 
good  Bishop  Berkeley  and  the  Christian  Scientists.  Medical  science 
is  organized  to  save  the  body  and  does  not  care  what  becomes  of 
the  soul,  if  there  be  any.  Its  business  is  not  with  another  world. 
It  has  a  business  syndicate’s  grip  on  the  passion  to  live.  It  has 
availed  itself  of  this  advantage  and  but  for  competition  and  a  code 
of  ethics  not  yet  extinct  would  have  no  better  reputation  than 
Shylock.  Christianity  has  always  taught  that  salvation  is  free; 
it  supported  the  priest  by  wages  paid  collectively,  and  thus  socialized 
religion.  Salvation  was  not  individually  paid  for  until  the  sale  of 
indulgences,  and  this  terminated  the  abuses  associated  with  the 
more  mercenary  tendencies  of  religion. 

In  all  this  period,  however,  medicine  was  not  socialized.  The 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  433 

individual  paid  for  his  services.  Saving  the  body  was  not  free, 
it  had  to  be  paid  for.  As  soon  as  materialism  triumphed  it  de¬ 
creased  the  interest  in  another  life  and  intensified  the  passion  for 
this  one.  This  situation  has  yielded  a  harvest  for  medicine,  and 
medicine  has  availed  itself  of  its  opportunities.  In  fact,  medicine 
is  not  wholly  exempt  from  the  charge  of  extortion.  The  salvation 
of  the  body  is  the  primary  thing.  Indeed  there  is  nothing  else  to 
save.  Psychology  offers  us  no  soul  in  which  to  be  interested,  and 
physiology  has  undertaken  to  correct  or  prevent  the  ravages  of 
disease  and  the  brutalities  of  accident.  In  the  meantime  discovery 
and  invention  have  multiplied  the  comforts  of  life  and  justified  ma¬ 
terialism  of  her  children.  Our  wealth  goes  into  saving  the  body ; 
and  such  attention  as  the  soul  gets,  where  it  is  assumed  at  all,  is 
perfunctory  and  ritualistic.  In  the  Middle  Ages  men  built  cathe¬ 
drals  and  worshipped  God,  living  like  Simeon  Stylites ;  in  the 
present  age  we  build  hospitals  and  worship  our  bellies,  living  like 
princes.  Materialism  has  commercialized  everything,  and  medicine, 
despite  its  charities,  has  not  escaped  the  general  tendency.  The 
university  was  founded  to  defend  religion  and  has  developed  into 
a  forum  for  science.  Only  the  denominational  college  remains  to 
protect  religion.  The  non-sectarian  institution  has  to  cultivate 
Laodiceanism  in  order  to  attract  students  and  Mr.  Carnegie’s  pen¬ 
sions  in  order  to  save  paying  its  teachers  duly  for  their  services. 
Psychology,  which  might  have  saved  the  soul  for  ethics  and  re¬ 
ligion,  has  gone  off  into  “empiricism”  or  materialism;  and  medi¬ 
cine,  no  longer  having  to  cope  with  mental  phenomena,  has  a  free 
field  for  materialistic  therapeutics.  Mind  no  longer  counts  either 
as  a  cause  or  a  prize.  The  body  is  everything,  and  the  resources  of 
civilization  are  employed  in  protecting  private  property  from  the 
hungry  maws  of  the  masses,  who  were  once  taught  by  Christianity 
that  they  were  our  brothers  and  were  deserving  of  the  right  to  live 
When  medicine  cannot  exploit  the  poor,  it  refers  them  to  the  alms¬ 
house  and  buries  them  in  Potter’s  Field.  The  physician  may  not 
save  the  epicure’s  body,  but  he  may  get  his  money.  No  religion 
comes  in  to  make  it  imperative  to  consider  man’s  soul.  Only  his 
body  deserves  or  receives  attention,  and  that  only  when  he  can  pay 
for  it  or  when  we  wish  to  evade  the  appearance  of  inhumanity. 


434  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

Charity  is  the  remnant  of  the  religion  which  materialism  has  dis¬ 
placed,  and,  in  the  light  of  evolution,  with  its  struggle  for  existence 
and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  or  strongest,  even  charity  threatens  to 
become  an  extinct  virtue. 

Religion  managed  to  get  into  a  hostile  attitude  towards  science. 
At  the  inception  of  Christianity  they  were  allied  except  for  the 
contest  with  the  Epicureans  and  their  materialism.  Even  there 
the  argument  was  ad  hominem.  The  Epicurean  admitted  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  a  soul  but  denied  its  immortality ;  and  when  confronted 
with  alleged  evidence  of  survival,  instead  of  acknowledging  defeat, 
he  changed  his  ground  and  continued  in  his  denial.  He  gave  up 
the  existence  of  the  soul  rather  than  admit  its  mortality  and  accept 
a  reconciliation  with  religion.  Otherwise  religion  quickly  seized 
upon  philosophy  and  science  for  its  support  and  directed  its  hos¬ 
tility  to  art.  Idolatry,  as  the  embodiment  of  art  and  of  a  purely 
esthetic  conception  of  the  divine,  was  the  bete  noir  of  Christianity. 
The  early  Christian  could  not  distinguish  between  the  symbolism 
and  the  reality  of  polytheism,  and,  taking  offense,  rightly  I  think, 
at  the  sensuous  conception  of  the  divine  as  nothing  but  sublimated 
matter,  established  a  conflict  with  art  and  an  alliance  with  science. 
Science,  at  least  when  it  based  its  explanations  on  atoms  and  similar 
realities,  rested  as  much  on  the  supersensible  as  religion  had  done, 
and  hence  had  in  that  respect  a  natural  affinity  with  religion.  So 
long  as  religion  could  enlist  philosophy  and  science  in  its  defense  it 
was  assured  of  protection.  But  as  soon  as  it  began  a  dalliance  with 
art  its  decay  began,  with  the  rise  of  materialism  in  the  church. 
When  pictures  and  cathedrals  became  necessary  for  religion,  the 
protection  of  philosophy  was  no  longer  necessary,  or  it  required 
too  strenuous  use  of  the  intellect  to  justify  the  labor.  So  physical 
science  began  a  career  independnt  of  religion  and  soon  attacked  its 
fundamental  claims.  Physical  science  won  in  all  its  battles  until 
religion  now  crouches  in  terror  before  the  loss  of  all  its  traditions. 
Psychology  and  philosophy  are  no  longer  its  handmaids,  but  have 
gone  off  into  the  service  of  the  intellectual  curiosity  shop.  Medi¬ 
cine  has  appropriated  all  that  had  belonged  to  its  rival  or  master 
and  has  assumed  a  determined  hostility  to  everything  spiritual. 

Psychic  research,  with  its  facts  to  suggest  or  to  prove  the  exist- 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  435 

ence  of  a  soul  and  its  survival,  had  neither  a  scientific  nor  a  thera¬ 
peutic  interest  for  medicine.  Professing  to  be  devoted  to  a  scien¬ 
tific  view  of  man,  the  moment  that  any  promise  of  sustaining  the 
value  of  personality  appeared  on  the  horizon,  medicine  and  academic 
psychology  began  either  to  take  to  cover  or  to  ridicule  what  had  been 
the  real  object  of  psychological  science  in  the  beginning.  Medicine 
had  founded  its  claims  on  materialism,  and  psychology  dared  not 
oppose  medicine  for  fear  of  losing  its  bread.  Both  ridiculed  what 
they  had  not  the  courage  to  face  nor  the  knowledge  to  understand. 

But  medicine  did  yield  to  the  influence  of  Christian  Science! 
It  pretended  to  investigate  it,  but  there  was  nothing  scientific  in 
the  verdict,  though  it  was  correct  enough  in  all  probability.  It 
laughed  at  mesmerism  until  mesmerism  was  revived  under  the  term 
hypnotism  and  then,  accepted  the  facts  and  their  utility ;  but  the 
moment  that  hypnotism  approached  the  confines  of  the  supernormal 
it  was  to  be  neglected.  Christian  Science  followed.  The  system 
was  one  half  spiritualism  and  one  half  a  scheme  to  make  money. 
Neuropathic  patients  whom  the  regular  physicians  could  not  cure 
went  in  multitudes  to  the  new  “  Science  ”  and  were  cured.  The 
demonstration  that  drugs  were  not  always  necessary  for  successful 
cures  was  a  challenge  to  the  whole  system  of  medicine,  which 
rested  on  chemistry  alone.  Mind  was  not  a  factor  in  the  pharma¬ 
copoeia.  Psychology  made  no  such  claim  as  Christian  Science  did, 
and  if  it  had  done  so,  materialistic  medicine  would  have  laughed 
the  claim  out  of  court.  It  was  content  simply  to  attack  the  cures  of 
Christian  Science  on  the  evidential  side.  It  was  an  easy  victory  to 
show  that  Christian  Science  was  not  scientific.  But  the  fact  re¬ 
mained  that  sufferers  sought  and  found  relief  or  health  in  a  system 
which  did  its  work  in  defiance  of  physiological  orthodoxy.  This 
fact  would  not  down,  and  it  was  not  the  exclusive  property  of 
Christian  Science.  Mental  healing  had  been  successful  long  be¬ 
fore  Mrs.  Eddy  gave  it  notoriety.  Hypnotic  suggestion  had  been 
scientifically  applied  by  Charcot,  Bernheim,  Janet,  Baron  von 
Schrenck-Notzing  and  a  host  of  predecessors.  But  its  methods 
were  too  esoteric  for  the  average  practitioner  to  use  or  to  learn  and 
the  confidence  in  drugs  rose  in  proportion  to  the  assurance  that  ma¬ 
terialism  was  the  true  philosophy. 


436  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

What  medicine  should  have  done  was  to  seize  the  first  in¬ 
dication  of  any  unusual  mental  phenomena  and  investigate  them 
scientifically,  and  then,  by  a  just  verdict,  make  an  end  of  the  mat¬ 
ter.  But  what  did  it  do  with  mesmerism?  It  appointed  a  com¬ 
mittee  which  reported  much  charlatanry  and  some  important  facts 
in  the  claims  of  Mesmer  and  his  followers;  and  then  refused  to 
accept  this  verdict,  packed  a  committee  to  condemn  it,  and  pub¬ 
lished  the  later  report,  shelving  the  first.  Orthodoxy  and  dogma¬ 
tism,  bigotry  and  intolerance  are  not  confined  to  religion  and  their 
results  are  not  felt  there  alone.  Science  can  destroy  its  own  au¬ 
thority  as  easily  as  did  religion.  Why  science  should  have 
neglected  the  investigation  of  hypnotism  and  taken  alarm  at 
Christian  Science  is  explainable  only  by  the  ease  with  which  it  could 
divest  the  latter  of  its  claims ;  but  even  there  “  McClure’s  Magazine  ” 
did  more  and  better  work  than  the  medical  profession. 

There  is  no  escaping  the  fact  that  mind  as  well  as  matter  is  a 
causal  factor  in  the  world.  But  materialism,  though  it  might  have 
conceded  this  fact,  has  stubbornly  refused  to  recognize  it.  Though 
the  physician  knew  that  the  mental  condition  of  his  patient  was  a 
factor  in  therapeutics,  he  refused  to  give  it  the  place  in  practice 
that  it  merited.  He  was  too  much  absorbed  in  brain  centers,  about 
which  there  has  been  written  as  much  unprovable  metaphysics  as 
about  the  unseen.  Matter  was  the  prius  of  everything  and  that 
was  the  end  of  investigation.  However,  the  slow  and  steady  ac¬ 
cumulation  of  facts  by  psychic  research,  if  it  has  not  been  able 
scientifically  to  establish  the  causal  influence  of  mind  on  matter, 
has  opened  the  densest  materialistic  mind  to  something  besides 
brain  centers.  To  introduce  a  soul  into  the  investigations  of 
biology  and  physiology  is  to  revolutionize  them.  Psychology  might 
have  shared  the  honors  of  this  result,  but  it  chose  to  run  away,  pre¬ 
ferring  either  materialism  or  intellectual  snobbery.  But  psychology 
and  medicine  have  only  postponed  the  day  of  judgment  which  is 
coming  to  rob  the  old  authorities  of  their  prestige  and  power. 
The  stone  which  was  despised  of  the  builders  is  to  become  the 
head  of  the  corner.  Mind  will  take  a  place  among  the  causal 
agencies  of  nature.  This  position  will  be  won  either  by  the  study 
of  suggestion  and  mental  healing  or  by  the  evidence  for  survival 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  437 

after  death.  Medicine  will  have  to  give  up  the  exclusive  use  of 
drugs  and  admit  the  influence  of  mental  states  on  the  condition 
of  the  body.  The  more  gracefully  it  does  this  the  better  for  its 
own  influence.  Its_hostility  to  Christian  Science  was  at  least 
excusable,  and  the  writer  thinks  justified,  by  the  equally  one-sided 
views  which  that  system  takes.  ^Mind  is  one  of  the  causal  agents 
in  the  world,  but  it  is  not  the  only  one.  However,  the  writer  freely 
concedes  that  without  the  evidence  of  psychic  research,  the  material¬ 
ist  has  the  best  of  the  case.  The  facts  and  the  argument  are  on  his 
side,  if  the  supernormal  is  to  be  debarred  from  consideration. 

The  cowardice  about  this  question  is  astonishing  when  we 
consider  how  alert  the  scientific  mind  is  in  other  provinces.  The 
most  useless  inquiries  in  physics  or  chemistry,  will  engage  hun¬ 
dreds  of  men  and  unlimited  resources,  if  only  fame  or  curiosity 
can  be  satisfied.  North  Pole  expeditions  are  organized  at  enor¬ 
mous  expense  with  nothing  of  importance  as  a  result,  and  the  public 
goes  wild  about  them.  But  when  one  offers  to  prove  that  man  has 
a  soul  or  that  the  mind  may  be  a  factor  in  therapeutics,  he  meets 
only  ridicule.  The  momentum  of  materialistic  science  is  so  great 
that  the  most  important  of  all  problems  has  to  wait  for  half  a 
century  to  win  attention. 

The  present  writer  thinks  that  the  main  contention  in  this 
field  has  been  sustained  and  that  it  is  only  stupidity  and  prejudice 
that  stand  in  the  way  of  its  wider  acceptance.  He  will  no  longer 
make  any  concession  to  a  skepticism  that  refuses  to  investigate. 

The  one  great  change  which  the  proof  of  the  causal  influence 
of  mind  will  bring  to  medicine  will  be  the  placing  of  ethics  in  a 
more  important  position  in  therapeutics.  Materialism  with  its 
drug  methods  was  based  upon  the  assumption  that  medicine  could 
cure  the  effects  of  vice  and  sin.  Physicians  knew  better,  but  the 
patient  wanted  to  believe  this  and  it  was  not  always  convenient 
or  profitable  to  disillusion  him  on  this  point.  The  achievements 
in  the  use  of  materia  medica  in  lieu  of  spiritus  medicus  tended  to 
sustain  confidence  in  the  possibility  of  escaping  the  consequences 
of  sin,  and  man  went  to  his  physician  instead  of  the  priest  for 
relief.  The  time  was  when  he  went  to  the  priest  first  and  after¬ 
ward  to  the  doctor.  But  this  procedure  has  been  reversed.  Ma- 


438  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

terialism  taught  us  to  believe  that,  if  we  only  had  good  enough 
doctors,  we  could  sin  as  we  pleased.  We  consulted  the  physician 
and  took  his  drugs  instead  of  buying  indulgences.  The  fact  is 
that  the  one  is  no  better  than  the  other  for  buying  release  from 
moral  responsibility.  If  chemistry  can  relieve  us  from  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  sin,  why  give  ethics  any  place  at  all?  So  thought  ma¬ 
terialism  in  its  attempt  to  evade  the  facts  of  morality.  But  to 
put  mind  among  the  therapeutic  agents  is  to  turn  the  tide  the  other 
way.  It  will  not  set  aside  the  achievements  of  the  materia  medica, 
but  it  will  add  a  new  force  to  healing.  The  physician  will  have 
to  become  a  psychologist  and  a  moralist.  He  has  already  found,  in 
.spite  of  his  materialism,  that  drugs  will  not  do  everything,  and 
he  squints  cautiously  towards  mind-cure  without  realizing  the 
extent  of  the  changes  that  must  come  from  any  dalliance  with  it. 
But  to  it  he  must  come,  if  he  is  to  be  scientific  at  all,  instead  of 
resting  in  traditions  and  dogmatism  no  less  fatal  to  progress  than 
mediaeval  theology.  But  physician  and  patient  alike  must  learn  that 
ethics  are  the  best  and  the  cheapest  therapeutic,  and  that  mind  is 
the  primary  factor  in  healing.  We  cannot  substitute  drugs  for 
conscience,  except  to  secure  more  fees  and  fewer  cures.  What 
is  needed  is  the  organization  of  the  medical  profession  on  the  same 
basis  as  the  priesthood.  Disinterestedness  and  humanity  must  be 
the  primary  motives  of  its  work,  or  at  least  the  mercenary  interest 
must  be  minimized.  As  it  is  to-day,  the  clergyman  receives  on 
the  average  scarcely  a  living  wage,  and  this  is  right  enough  if  there 
be  no  soul  to  save.  The  rewards  should  all  go  to  the  physician  if 
the  body  is  all  in  all.  But  when  we  are  assured  that  there  is  a 
soul  and  that  it  survives  in  another  and  invisible  environment,  the 
physician  must  either  adjust  his  practice  to  the  demands  of  ethics 
or  retire  from  the  field. 

The  physician  may  endeavor  to  heal  without  raising  the  question 
of  ultimate  causes,  but  he  cannot  effect  a  permanent  cure  until  his 
patient  is  spiritually  sound.  The  individual  is  not  always  the 
sinner  and  hence  the  physician  cannot  always  throw  the  blame  on 
the  victim.  He  must  cure,  if  he  can,  regardless  of  the  relation  be¬ 
tween  individual  and  social  sin.  No  doubt  each  man  must  accept 
responsibility  for  his  error,  but  too  often  the  sin  is  that  of  society 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  439 

and  the  individual  has  to  bear  the  suffering  vicariously.  The  hap¬ 
piness  of  the  successful  is  often  more  or  less  at  the  expense  of  the 
unsuccessful.  Hospitals  and  asylums  are  embodiments  of  this  idea, 
and  the  only  question  is,  how  far  the  principle  shall  be  applied.  The 
passion  to  live  is  so  strong  that  if  man  is  without  any  belief  that 
better  times  are  reserved  for  him  beyond  the  grave,  he  will  give  all 
he  has,  to  prolong  consciousness.  The  physician’s  advantage  in 
the  situation  is  tremendous.  If  he  does  not  possess  character  he 
may  make  the  suffering  of  the  patient  a  thumbscrew  for  extorting 
good  fees. 

Half  the  applause  heaped  on  medicine  is  from  those  who  rejoice 
at  the  ability  to  escape  the  results  of  sin  and  to  outwit  nature  or 
Providence.  Since  medicine  is  so  near  religion,  it  must  be  social¬ 
ized  and  brought  to  recognize  that  the  morality  of  patients  is  more 
important  than  life.  That  condition  can  be  secured  only  by  chang¬ 
ing  the  relative  position  assigned  the  body  in  the  scheme  of  values 
that  we  cherish.  Materialism,  on  its  own  premises,  of  course,  is 
justified  in  its  estimate,  but  only  because  it  does  not  recognize  the 
existence  and  the  superior  importance  of  the  soul.  The  conse¬ 
quences,  however,  of  the  estimate,  like  all  those  of  materialism,  are 
proving  disastrous.  If  the  materialist  wants  to  debauch  either  in 
philosophy  or  life  he  can  get  it;  for  nature  will  not  interfere  with 
our  choice.  It  will  silently  weave  about  it  a  set  of  consequences 
which  ultimately  correct  the  error,  and  we  can  escape  only  by  re¬ 
tracing  our  steps. 

Therapeutics,  no  less  than  ethics,  require  a  soul  and  the  physician 
will  never  effect  the  best  results  until  he  accepts  that  point  of  view. 
He  cannot  do  it,  of  course,  with  the  methods  of  normal  psychology. 
It  is  the  residual  phenomena  of  nature  that  establish  the  widest  con¬ 
clusions.  They  have  to  be  unified  with  the  whole,  and  in  doing  this 
we  discover  new  agents.  Forced  by  the  facts  to  recognize  mental 
states  as  causal  agents  in  therapeutic  processes,  however  limited  the 
field  of  their  activity,  medicine  admits  an  entering  wedge  into  its 
scheme  of  things  and  sooner  or  later  it  must  submit  to  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  ethical  and  religious  point  of  view,  divested  of  the  mass 
of  illusions  and  errors  that  have  gathered  about  it  like  barnacles. 
Curing  diseases  without  curing  sin  only  multiplies  the  cases  with 


440  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

which  we  have  to  deal,  and  present-day  medicine  is  no  help  in 
the  ethical  regeneration  of  man.  We  seek  at  enormous  expense 
the  means  for  escaping  pain,  but  we  will  not  give  a  cent  to'  ascer¬ 
tain  whether  we  have  a  soul  and  what  its  duties  are.  Liberty  and 
irresponsibility  are  what  we  desire,  and  not  an  ideal  that  looks  be¬ 
yond  an  Epicurean  paradise. 

And  yet  there  is  always  progress.  We  take  present  satisfaction 
as  an  index  of  the  right  condition  of  things.  It  is  this  that  makes 
all  conservatism.  But  nature  never  rests.  She  will  have  change  at 
all  costs.  If  we  resist  it  we  pay  the  heavier  penalty.  We  may 
cry  as  much  as  we  please  over  the  crumbling  of  the  past  into 
ashes,  with  all  those  institutions  which  we  have  learned  to  prize, 
but  we  would  not  do  so  could  we  see  in  the  change  a  sure  harbinger 
of  a  greater  paradise.  It  is  the  darkness  of  the  future  that  makes  us 
lament  the  loss  of  the  past.  Give  us  a  beacon  light  into  the  future 
and  we  can  endure  much.  Ethical  ideals  beyond  sense  can  find 
their  justification  only  in  a  non-sensuous  philosophy;  and  ethical 
ideals  point  to  the  future.  They  are  ideals  for  that  reason.  Psy¬ 
chology  does  nothing  for  us  unless  it  supplies  them,  and  medicine  can 
effect  no  permanent  cures  without  accepting  as  imperative  and 
primary  the  need  of  ethical  adjustments.  It  will  have  to  make  mind 
the  cause  and  effect,  to  speak  paradoxically,  of  all  that  it  does  ac¬ 
complish,  if  it  expects  to  achieve  its  best  conquests.  Indeed  religion 
and  medicine  will  have  to  join  partnership  again  and  they  can  do 
this  only  by  one  of  them  abandoning  materialism  and  the  other 
accepting  science  as  its  guide.  The  one  should  be  no  more  a  com¬ 
mercial  business  than  the  other,  but  commercial  they  must  both 
be,  when  materialism  is  our  only  philosophy. 

Public  opinion  has  accepted  materialism  without  knowing  what  it 
means,  and  it  pays  its  servants  according  to  their  power  and  will¬ 
ingness  to  pander  to  its  wants.  Education  and  religion  are  or¬ 
ganized  for  catering  to  materialism  and  no  scientific  truth  is  sought, 
except  such  as  may  come  from  the  accidents  of  that  organization  or 
from  the  necessity  of  supplying  material  wants.  Respectability  is 
on  the  side  of  materialism,  and  spiritualism,  which  had  ruled  eight¬ 
een  centuries  of  civilization,  badly  enough,  it  is  true,  but  with  more 
success  than  either  Greece  or  Rome  achieved,  is  forsaken  and  for- 


PSYCHOLOGY,  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE  441 

lorn  and  left  to  foster  its  faith  without  evidence.  Fortunately  it 
is  rapidly  gaining  a  position  from  which  it  may  issue  with  “  grim 
fire-eyed  defiance  ”  to  challenge  any  dispute  of  its  claims.  It  will 
then  dictate  terms  to  religion  and  medicine,  to  the  one  without  dis¬ 
turbing  its  faith  and  to  the  other  without  disturbing  its  science,  and 
psychology  will  come  again  to  serve  them  both,  recovering  its  right¬ 
ful  domain  in  cultivating  the  wider  interests  of  man. 

Man  first  placed  the  golden  age  in  the  dim  vistas  of  the  past,  but 
philosophy  and  science  soon  showed  that  it  was  only  mythological. 
Christian  idealism,  accepting  the  legend  of  paradise  and  man’s 
fallen  estate,  making  the  present  carnal  life  one  of  sin  and  suffer¬ 
ing,  placed  its  golden  age  in  the  future  where  it  seemed  safer  from 
attack.  Legend  may  be  assaulted  by  history,  but  imagination  can 
only  be  ignored  or  ridiculed.  Faith  proved  a  stronger  fortress 
than  tradition,  which  dissolves  in  the  light  of  science  like  a  morning 
mist  before  the  sun.  Yet  science  with  its  materialism  and  re¬ 
doubtable  energies  came  again  to  conquer  the  world  from  illusion 
and  in  doing  so  left  nothing  but  darkness.  But  mariners  will  not 
sail  the  seas  without  a  harbor  in  which  to  anchor  and  something 
to  requite  their  toil.  There  is  no  commerce  with  the  unknown,  and 
hence  it  will  devolve  upon  science  either  to  submit  to  some  other 
source  of  knowledge  and  governance  or  to  give  us  a  religion  that 
shall  be  stronger  than  faith  and  more  adventurous  than  doubt. 
“  Science,”  says  Lord  Morley,  who  was  saturated  with  the  philoso¬ 
phy  of  the  Encyclopedists,  “  when  she  has  accomplished  all  her  tri¬ 
umphs  in  her  own  order,  will  still  have  to  go  back,  when  the  time 
comes,  to  assist  in  building  up  a  new  creed  by  which  man  may  live.” 
That  time  has  come,  and  recreant  or  cowardly  is  the  man  who  does 
not  seize  the  opportunity  to  shield  the  ideals  that  may  bring  a  “  little 
sheen  of  inspiration  out  of  the  surrounding  eternity  to  color  with 
its  own  hues  man’s  little  islet  of  time.”  All  action  has  its  fruition 
in  the  future  and  we  must  see  the  prospect  before  we  can  act  ration- ' 
ally.  Only  he  who  has  hope  can  be  moved  to  any  ventures  that  have 
idealism  for  their  motive  or  progress  for  their  rational  end. 

For  my  purpose  holds 
To  sail  beyond  the  sunset  and  the  baths 
Of  all  the  western  stars,  until  I  die. 


442  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us  down : 

It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  Happy  Isles 

And  see  the  great  Achilles  whom  we  knew. 

But  in  the  travail  of  that  voyage  the  light  of  science  and  hope 
may  reveal,  in  the  cross  section  of  evolution  which  we  study,  some 
vision  of  eternal  life,  and  the  final  moments  which  the  gloomy  fears 
instigated  by  materialism  have  saddened,  may  be  cheered  by  a 
greater  outlook,  and  man,  chastened  by  toil  and  pain,  may  be  happy 
yet. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR 

This  age  is  so  practical  that  men  engaged  in  any  work  are 
expected  to  defend  it  by  showing  its  relation  to  the  prob¬ 
lems  with  which  the  world  is  immediately  concerned. 
We  cannot  get  a  hearing  unless  we  satisfy  the  public  that  we  can 
contribute  to  its  ends.  Each  science  tries  to  vindicate  itself  by 
declaring  what  it  does  for  the  general  welfare  or  for  the  solution 
of  the  problems  confronting  civilization.  Most  of  the  sciences 
have  a  direct  relation  to  practical  problems.  Many,  therefore,  will 
ask  whether  psychic  research  can  help  to  solve  the  world  problems 
of  the  day.  Those  who  are  interested  in  the  question  whether  we 
live  after  death  will  have  no  difficulty  in  answering  the  question. 
But  those  who  are  absorbed  in  material  affairs  may  ridicule  or 
neglect  the  remote  issues  of  a  problem  like  psychic  research.  To 
most  people  it  seems  a  vain  endeavor  to  lift  the  veil  of  existence. 
Their  assumption  is  that  Isis  must  always  remain  veiled  and  that 
man’s  business  is  only  with  the  world  of  sense.  Like  the  ancient 
Greeks,  who  thought  that  the  gods  lived  in  an  intermundane  world 
where  they  could  exercise  no  influence  on  terrestrial  events,  they 
disconnect  spirit  from  earthly  affairs  and  await  in  sullen  or  happy 
indifference  the  end  of  life  and  the  world. 

But  the  psychic  researcher  has  a  problem  of  more  immediate 
interest  than  the  skeptic  and  the  Philistine  dream  of.  We  are 
not  seeking  to  establish  remote  relationships  when  we  assert  that 
psychic  research  bears  directly  on  the  problems  of  war.  People 
easily  see  that  wheat,  turnips,  and  pig  iron  affect  the  issues  of 
civilization,  but  they  less  clearly  realize  the  place  of  psychic  phe¬ 
nomena  in  determining  history. 

If  psychic  research  were  occupied  merely  with  a  few  oddities  of 
mental  experience  it  might  well  be  said  to  have  no  connection  with 
the  war.  If  it  were  exclusively  concerned  with  phenomena  like 

443 


+44  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

telepathy  or  mind-reading,  or  with  coincidental  dreams,  or  with  the 
mysteries  of  the  diving-rod,  a  man  would  be  foolhardy  who  essayed 
to  speak  of  its  importance  in  the  problems  of  war,  unless  he  could 
show  its  direct  connection  with  the  one  consideration  that  makes 
war  a  nightmare  to  the  better  members  of  the  human  race.  We 
may  explore  the  marginal  phenomena  of  the  mind  all  we  please  and 
lind  no  practical  interest  in  them,  until  we  find  their  relation  to  the 
one  pivotal  interest  of  human  reflection;  namely,  the  immortality 
of  the  soul.  We  may  criticize  human  nature,  justly  or  unjustly, 
for  its  obsession  with  this  idea.  We  may  contend  that  man  is  too 
much  concerned  with  the  other  world  and  too  little  concerned  with 
his  daily  duties  in  this  world.  But  this  criticism  does  not  alter 
the  facts.  The  practical  problem  is  to  deal  with  facts  as  they 
are  and  to  consider  what  effect  a  belief  has,  whether  or  not  it  is 
justifiable.  Hence  in  any  preliminary  discussion  of  this  problem 
we  are  concerned  not  with  what  is  ideally  preferable,  but  with 
the  actual  state  of  mind  that  determines  human  conduct.  Psychic 
research  would  have  little  interest  for  most  people,  if  it  did  not 
bear  upon  this  large  question  of  the  nature  and  destiny  of  the 
human  mind.  Its  subsidiary  phenomena  might  otherwise  interest 
only  men  who  seek  to  amuse  themselves  with  abnormalities.  But 
the  scientific  study  of  the  relation  between  matter  and  mind  shows 
many  of  the  phenomena  of  psychic  research  to  be  crucial  in  deter¬ 
mining  the  meaning  of  all  mental  facts.  There  are  marginal  phe¬ 
nomena  which  suggest  that  consciousness  and  personality  are  not 
bubbles  on  the  ocean,  soon  lost  in  its  engulfing  embrace.  Appari¬ 
tions,  mediumistic  communications  with  the  dead,  and  suggestions 
of  a  transcendental  world  that  reveal  an  infinite  scope  for  the  mind 
give  the  subject  an  interest  and  importance  scarcely  equaled  since 
the  speculations  of  Plato  and  the  teachings  of  Christ. 

How  does  the  belief  in  immortality  affect  the  problems  of  war? 
What  are  the  problems  of  war?  The  answers  to  these  questions 
are  not  simple.  But  the  one  element  that  enters  into  both  answers 
is  the  problem  of  death.  If  war  were  a  pugilistic  encounter,  in 
which  both  combatants  come  out  alive,  psychic  research  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  issue.  But  the  central  interests  in  war  are 
human  ideals  and  death.  In  war  death  comes  to  the  strongest  of 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR  445 

the  race  and  comes  without  the  ordinary  calculations  and  risks  of 
life.  In  the  normal  conditions  of  existence,  the  healthy  man  has 
no  time  or  interest  to  spend  in  thinking  about  death.  The  attain¬ 
ment  of  our  ideals  is  the  object  of  action  and  when  these  pre¬ 
occupy  attention  the  prospect  of  death  fades  into  the  margin  of  con¬ 
sciousness.  If  we  cannot  achieve  our  aims  and  are  attacked  by 
disease,  we  lose  interest  in  life  and  calmly  await  the  end.  It  is 
true  that  human  kind  cannot  be  classified  in  this  hard  and  fast 
way.  For  there  are  large  numbers  that  can  never  lose  sight  of  the 
grave  in  their  thought  and  action.  But  the  majority  of  men  are 
Stoics,  if  not  in  virtue,  in  the  habit  of  taking  things  as  they  come 
and  wasting  as  little  energy  as  possible  on  the  fear  of  death.  Lack 
of  time,  or  fear  of  losing  the  game,  keeps  the  dread  spectre  below  the 
horizon.  But  when  war  confronts  us,  it  brings  certainties  and 
risks  that  we  do  not  have  to  meet  in  the  regular  course  of  normal 
life.  The  one  thing  that  hovers  always  in  the  field  of  consciousness 
is  the  prospect  of  losing  life  and  ideals  at  one  stroke;  the  ques¬ 
tion  for  the  man  who  values  his  present  existence  is  whether  the 
sacrifice  is  worth  while.  Death  or  maiming  for  life  confronts  the 
soldier  every  day  of  his  career,  and  he  will  feel  the  tragedy  of  the 
situation  in  proportion  to  the  value  which  he  places  on  life. 

If  we  asserted  that  a  belief  in  immortality  is  essential  to  the  mak¬ 
ing  of  good  soldiers,  that  unqualified  statement  would  meet  with 
instant  denial.  There  are  instances  in  which  the  belief  has  favor¬ 
ably  affected  the  character  and  the  courage  of  soldiers.  All  will 
agree  that  the  courage  of  the  Japanese  in  the  war  against  Russia 
was  increased  by  their  belief  in  survival  and  a  future  meeting  with 
their  ancestors.  The  Crusaders  also  were  influenced  by  their  be¬ 
lief  in  immortality.  And  we  could  perhaps  find  many  races  pro¬ 
foundly  influenced  in  their  martial  life  and  ideals  by  this  belief. 
But  it  is  far  from  universal.  Whole  races  in  the  past  either  did  not 
have  the  belief  at  all,  or  held  it  in  a  form  that  did  not  connect  it 
with  martial  valor.  Savages  are  usually  little  influenced  by  it. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans,  especially  the  latter,  were  not  primarily 
affected  in  military  affairs  by  the  belief  in  immortality.  Other 
motives  were  substituted  for  it.  The  Roman  race  was  essentially 
Stoic  in  temperament,  long  before  the  philosophy  of  that  name  or- 


446  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

ganized  reasons  for  its  view  of  life.  Roman  citizens  died  for  the 
state  and  did  not  expect  to  reap  a  reward  in  another  world  for 
their  heroism,  though  we  can  find  among  them  individual  excep¬ 
tions.  It  was  Christianity  that  gave  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  an  important  place  in  the  philosophy  of  conduct, 
Christianity  emphasized  the  belief  so  strongly  and  merged  other 
interests  in  it  in  such  a  manner  that  it  became  the  pivotal  doctrine 
of  the  system.  The  belief  in  immortality  is  certainly  not  essential 
to  the  formation  of  the  heroic  virtues  of  the  soldier,  and  it  would 
be  folly  for  any  man  to  insist  that  it  always  has  this  effect  on  life 
and  character.  All  depends  on  the  place  it  occupies  in  the  social 
and  individual  scheme  of  life.  Its  importance  will  depend  entirely 
on  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  our  beliefs. 

I  said  above  that  the  influence  of  the  belief  on  conduct  will  depend 
on  the  value  which  we  attach  to  the  present  life.  If  we  do  not  value 
this  life,  we  are  not  likely  to  place  any  high  value  on  life  after 
death.  Emphasis  on  the  importance  of  death  is  proportionate  to 
interest  in  present  living.  When  it  is  not  mere  desire  of  living 
that  determines  our  actions,  but  some  principle,  such  as  patriotism, 
the  family,  science,  literature,  or  success,  we  are  apt  to  put  the 
idea  of  survival  in  a  secondary  place  among  motives.  But  if  we 
regard  the  joys  of  physical  life  either  as  above  all  others  or  as  the 
only  joys  we  are  sure  of,  we  thus  emphasize  the  importance  of  death 
as  the  termination  of  them.  Now  the  materialistic  philosophy 
emphasizes  the  idea  that  death  is  the  end  of  all  things  and  assures 
us  that  we  are  not  certain  of  any  other  happiness  than  what  we 
can  attain  in  the  present.  It  thus  cuts  off  the  unsuccessful  from 
any  hope  of  realizing  natural  ambitions  and  assures  all  persons 
that  the  shortening  of  life  is  so  much  unrequited  sacrifice.  In  an 
age  of  little  comfort  and  hard  living,  the  passions  of  luxury  and 
avarice  have  no  place;  and  when  happiness  is  hardly  attainable  on 
any  terms,  the  sacrifice  of  life  is  easy.  The  comforts  and  luxuries 
which  science  and  invention  have  brought  to  modern  life  make  life 
so  attractive  that  death,  if  not  feared,  is  at  least  hated.  When  in 
doubt  about  a  future  life  man  tries  to  prolong  consciousness  in 
present  conditions  and  endeavors  to  stave  off  the  fatal  day  of  death, 
because  he  feels  no  assurance  that  there  is  anything  for  his  per- 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR  447 

sonality  beyond  the  grave.  What  he  can  achieve  here  he  is  cer¬ 
tain  of.  What  the  future  holds  in  store  for  him  is  unknown,  and 
the  unknown  is  no  incentive  to  action.  But  if  he  is  sure  that  death 
is  not  the  end  of  all  things  and  that  it  only  brings  a  change  of  en¬ 
vironment;  that  it  only  continues  life,  and  that  it  brings  a  reward 
for  deeds  well  done,  he  meets  it  cheerfully  and  giving  up  this  life 
is  no  sacrifice  to  him. 

Lucretius,  the  Roman  materialist,  regarded  the  fear  of  death 
as  the  greatest  evil  man  has  to  face,  and  St.  Paul  accepted  the  same 
view  of  it.  But  each  had  a  different  solution  of  the  problem. 
Lucretius  thought  to  overcome  this  fear  by  teaching  man  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  annihilation.  St.  Paul  endeavored  to  overcome  it  by 
teaching  immortality.  But  in  the  present  state  of  human  opinion 
no  man  can  expect  to  dispel  this  evil  by  denying  immortality.  Sur¬ 
vival  after  death  may  not  be  a  fact;  but  annihilation  is  none  the 
less  dreaded.  If  the  existence  and  prolongation  of  consciousness 
can  be  proved  to  be  evil,  men  may  logically  be  taught  that  it  should 
be  destroyed.  But  the  average  healthy  man  will  not  be  influenced 
by  the  doctrine  that  suicide  is  his  duty  or  his  salvation ! 

The  view  of  life  after  death  as  somewhat  like  the  Hades  of 
ancient  superstitions  or  the  sulphurous  hell  of  some  later  ages, 
makes  the  fear  of  death  natural.  It  was  possibly  such  a  concep¬ 
tion  that  aroused  the  hostility  of  Epicurus  and  Lucretius.  A  life 
after  death  which  only  brought  more  suffering  might  well  suggest 
the  desirability  of  annihilation.  The  materialism  of  Lucretius  was 
a  moral  protest  against  an  absurd  and  unjust  hell  rather  than  against 
the  prolongation  of  consciousness.  St.  Paul  saw  the  problem  in 
a  clearer  light,  and  distinguished  between  survival  and  suffering. 
Christianity  emphasized  salvation  quite  as  much  as  immortality. 
St.  Paul  saw  that  the  fear  of  death  could  not  be  eradicated  from 
the  normal  man  by  a  doctrine  of  eternal  sleep.  If  man  looks  on 
consciousness  as  a  good,  he  is  not  likely  to  ask  for  its  termination 
as  the  great  desideratum.  He  will  want  to  prolong  it. 

Now  in  opposition  to  materialism  Christianity  taught  the  in¬ 
finite  value  of  the  soul  and  of  consciousness.  It  emphasized  life 
and  not  death  as  the  highest  good.  It  regarded  suffering  as  a  pun¬ 
ishment  for  immoral  conduct,  not  as  the  caprices  of  fortune,  and 


448  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

so  kept  a  possibility  of  permanent  happiness  before  the  imagina¬ 
tion.  In  this  way  it  established  a  love  of  life  which,  owing  to 
the  precarious  fortunes  of  war  and  the  suffering  prevalent  in  some 
ancient  civilizations,  hitherto  had  little  opportunity  for  expression 
and  cultivation.  Then  with  its  assurance  of  life  after  death,  it 
could  face  the  future  with  hope ;  and  hope  is  always  the  foundation 
of  rational  endeavor.  It  organized  civilization  on  this  basis  for 
many  centuries  and  fixed  in  the  human  mind  expectations  which 
the  materialist  could  not  support.  When  modern  materialism  came 
forward  with  a  doctrine  of  annihilation,  it  opposed  the  estab¬ 
lished  ideals  of  man.  It  does  not  degrade  or  impeach  the  pleasures 
of  living.  It  places  all  man’s  hopes  in  the  prudent  and  intelligent 
pursuit  of  material  good.  It  places  a  value  on  life  and  yet  has  to 
admit  that  death  ends  it.  It  discourages  the  soldier  by  asking 
him  to  make  all  the  sacrifices  while  the  survivors  of  war  enjoy  all 
the  rewards.  It  laughs  at  the  vicarious  atonement  taught  by  re¬ 
ligion  and  yet  asks  the  soldier  to  perform  it.  It  expects  a  man 
to  give  up  all  that  is  dear  to  him  without  hope  of  reward,  though 
it  estimates  value  only  in  terms  of  wages  and  profits.  On  the 
theory  of  materialism  man  can  act  only  on  self-interest  in  peace 
and  only  on  self-sacrifice  in  war.  A  philosophy  which  cannot  ob¬ 
serve  the  same  maxims  in  peace  as  in  war  is  destined  to  easy 
refutation.  But  when  the  doctrine  of  self-interest  is  adopted,  it 
dominates  the  whole  attitude  towards  death.  Good  soldiers  can¬ 
not  be  made  from  men  who  measure  life  by  its  reAvards  and  yet 
are  asked  to  relinquish  all  reward  in  facing  a  death  that  offers  them 
only  annihilation. 

In  this  age,  therefore,  a  belief  in  immortality  will  help  to  pro¬ 
duce  soldierly  qualities.  I  shall  agree  at  the  outset,  however,  that 
many  persons  are  not  influenced  by  such  a  faith.  Their  sense  of 
right  and  justice  is  sufficient  to  make  them  disregard  desire  of  re¬ 
ward  in  another  life,  and,  like  the  Roman  Stoics,  they  sacrifice 
life  without  thinking  of  any  future.  Their  willingness  to  act  with¬ 
out  hope  or  expectation  of  reward  shows  a  character  which  is 
perhaps  more  highly  respected  by  the  community  than  if  they 
sought  a  reward  for  their  action.  Some  will  serve  the  right,  though 
the  heavens  fall,  and  ask  no  rewards  here  or  hereafter.  Even  the 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR  449 

man  who  acts  from  passion  may  disregard  consequences.  The 
old  Roman  Stoic  philosophers  took  a  very  uncompromising  atti¬ 
tude  toward  all  emotional  considerations  in  conduct,  and  thought  a 
man  a  sentimentalist,  a  weakling,  who  allowed  undue  grief,  or  even 
any  grief,  to  affect  him  under  the  loss  of  friends  or  loved  ones. 
They  demanded  the  complete  sacrifice  of  emotion  as  the  sign  of 
virtue  or  manliness.  But,  as  Mr.  Lecky  finely  remarks,  this 
philosophy  will  not  successfully  lead  men  who  are  not  Stoics.  The 
majority  of  men  and  women  act  from  motives  very  different  from 
those  enjoined  by  philosophers.  Whether  weak  or  strong,  these 
men  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  problems  of  life,  individual  and 
social.  Most  men  are  governed  by  some  expectation  of  reward  in 
their  lives;  indeed  in  all  ordinary  affairs  any  other  course  is  irra¬ 
tional.  The  man  who  has  amassed  a  large  fortune  may  work  for 
nothing,  but  he  has  already  satisfied  his  ambition  for  independence. 
Like  all  others  he  expected  profits  as  the  wages  and  reward  for 
action,  often  wholly  disproportionate  to  the  amount  of  labor  per¬ 
formed.  In  such  a  world  we  can  not  afford  to  disregard  the  prac¬ 
tical  consideration  of  rewards  or  consequences.  With  this  con¬ 
sideration  dominating  most  men,  whether  it  be  the  highest  motive  of 
action  or  not,  a  belief  in  survival  may  be  reckoned  with  as  an 
incentive.  It  can  be  used  to  influence  those  who  would  otherwise 
be  cowards  in  the  struggle  for  right.  Much  cowardice  comes  from 
the  love  of  life.  Many  of  our  pacifists  are  too  cowardly  to  admit 
that  it  is  want  of  moral  courage  that  determines  their  pacifism. 
They  disguise  it  under  the  name  of  conscientious  scruples  against 
war.  Conscientiousness  is  regarded  as  a  virtue,  and  if  the  coward 
can  deceive  the  public  by  assuming  the  garb  of  conscientiousness, 
and  thus  disguising  his  cowardice,  he  may  keep  the  respect  of  the 
public  or  at  least  ward  off  its  contempt. 

The  resentment  against  the  draft  was  probably  in  large  measure 
due  to  exaltation  of  the  love  of  life  above  devotion  to  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  sacrifice  for  justice  and  for  posterity.  Under  a  volunteer 
system  the  belief  in  immortality  has  less  influence  than  under  a  draft 
system.  The  volunteer  has  moral  character  to  start  with,  whether 
due  to  a  belief  in  survival  or  not.  He  sees  his  duty  and  will  make 
any  sacrifice  to  perform  it.  But  the  man  who  will  not  volunteer, 


450  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

must  see  some  reward  in  view  beyond  this  life,  to  make  him  a  good 
soldier.  He  has  become  so  habituated  to  the  utilitarian  view  of  life 
that  he  must  be  made  to  see  that  he  loses  nothing  by  giving  his  life 
for  an  impersonal  ideal  of  country,  family,  or  justice.  If  men  are 
convinced  that  death  brings  no  cessation  of  their  development,  they 
will  be  good  soldiers  in  peace  or  war.  For  soldierly  qualities  are 
as  important  in  peace  as  in  war.  Courage  is  not  exclusively  the 
virtue  of  the  fighter.  It  is  as  necessary  in  social  as  in  martial 
life. 

The  pragmatist  in  philosophy  cannot  escape  the  view  here  de¬ 
fended.  He  measures  all  truth,  especially  ethical  truth,  by  con¬ 
sequences.  He  cannot  be  a  Stoic  on  the  subject  of  a  future  life. 
He  must  estimate  the  truth  and  value  of  the  doctrine  by  its  con¬ 
sequences  on  the  will  of  men.  In  this  age,  saturated  as  it  is  with 
materialistic  ideals,  he  must  recognize  that  immortality  is  cal¬ 
culated  to  reclaim  the  coward.  If  we  are  to  sacrifice  life  without 
regard  to  consequences,  we  can  reject  pragmatism  in  favor  of  an¬ 
other  philosophy. 

Christ  made  an  interesting  statement  which  seems  paradoxical, 
when  he  said  that  he  who  would  have  his  life  must  lose  it.  No 
saying  was  ever  better  justified  than  this.  But  it  is  true  only 
when  we  understand  the  spiritual  sense  in  which  it  is  to  be  taken. 
No  doubt  there  is  a  verbal  contradiction  if  we  take  the  term  “  life  ” 
in  the  same  sense  in  both  parts  of  the  sentence.  But  if  the 
teaching  means  that  the  man  who  voluntarily  gives  up  his  life  for 
an  ideal  loses  nothing  in  the  economy  of  the  cosmos,  it  furnishes  an 
effective  basis  for  the  ethics  of  both  peace  and  war.  In  fact,  no 
man  ever  attains  salvation  in  any  other  way.  The  mother  and 
father  who  are  tormented  by  the  fear  that  a  son  will  be  killed  in 
the  war,  forget  that  his  sacrifice,  if  voluntary,  is  his  salvation.  His 
life  in  peace  might  have  been  anything  but  his  salvation.  But 
when  he  resolves  to  be  a  man  and  to  stand  for  right  in  the  world, 
and  is  willing  to  give  up  his  life  for  that  service,  he  is  saved. 
Most  Christians  worship  their  Savior  because  he  sacrificed  his 
life  on  the  cross  for  their  redemption,  but  they  do  not  want  their 
sons  to  follow  his  example !  They  accept  the  vicarious  atonement, 
but  are  not  willing  to  make  it. 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR  451 

If  psychic  research  can  assure  men  of  a  life  beyond  death,  it  will 
put  the  materialistic  love  of  physical  life  to  shame.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  materialist  is  right,  if  he  can  show  that  no  life 
after  death  is  possible.  Man  must  then  make  the  most  of  the 
present  and  perform  as  few  sacrifices  as  possible  to  attain  his  ends. 
But  if  it  is  certain  that  consciousness  and  personality  continue  be¬ 
yond  the  grave,  it  will  be  much  easier  to  surrender  the  present  and 
to  live  the  heroic  virtues.  Indeed  they  will  even  be  less  “  heroic.” 
We  admire  the  hero  for  the  sacrifice  he  makes;  but  if  losing  one’s 
life  is  gaining  it,  nature  requires  no  such  sacrifices  of  us  as  the 
Stoic  demands.  Sacrifice  is  not  ultimately  sacrifice.  We  make 
it  such  only  by  our  false  theories.  In  fact,  we  might  say  that  our 
admiration  is  directly  proportioned  to  our  unwillingness  to  be  heroes 
ourselves.  It  is  the  coward  who  most  admires  courage.  The  sol- 
>dier  does  not  think  of  his  virtues  nor  of  his  right  to  the  respect 
of  his  fellows.  He  is  not  actuated  by  the  desire  to  be  thought 
heroic;  so  much  the  more,  then,  he  needs  to  be  led  away  from  the 
temptation  to  value  his  life  according  to  the  pleasures  he  can  secure 
if  he  refuses  sacrifice  in  behalf  of  his  country  or  justice.  Psychic 
research,  at  least  as  a  part  of  its  service,  can  administer  a  benefit  to 
the  world,  if  it  can  remove  all  temptation  to  disregard  the  appeal 
to  duty  and  to  higher  ideals. 

Selfishness  is  the  only  sin.  It  has  many  ramifications;  but  all 
other  sins  can  be  interpreted  as  forms  of  selfishness  and  all  vir¬ 
tues  as  self-sacrifice.  This  maxim  once  seized,  the  path  of  duty 
is  clear  to  every  man.  The  soldier  may  commit  mistakes  of  judg¬ 
ment  ;  he  may  fight  on  the  wrong  side ;  but  if  his  will  is  right  he  will 
not  suffer  the  consequences  of  bad  character.  He  will  have  made 
self-sacrifice  the  center  to  which  all  other  forms  of  virtue  gravitate. 
Any  maxim,  once  adopted,  determines  of  the  place  of  all  others 
in  the  system  of  conduct,  and  serves  as  the  test  for  their  adoption 
or  rejection.  Supreme  devotion  to  duty  at  the  sacrifice  of  life  is 
the  one  revolutionary  decision  for  every  man  to  make;  his  life 
then  conforms  to  the  order  of  the  cosmos  and  his  salvation  is  as¬ 
sured.  It  is  assured  because  his  life  goes  on,  and  his  compensation 
is  the  permanent  consciousness  of  having  done  the  right  thing  and 
paid  the  price.  In  such  a  system  the  continuity  of  life  assures  the 


452  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

compensation  and  shows  just  what  estimate  nature  puts  upon  the 
present  life.  Materialistic  systems  make  present  advantage  only 
standard  of  value.  But  ideals  can  be  realized  only  in  the  future. 
No  act  of  will  takes  place  without  having  future  consequences  as 
the  determinant  of  its  moral  value.  That  is  why  belief  in  survival 
is  a  condition  of  the  highest  ethical  life,  even  though  humanity  has 
not  always  made  the  best  use  of  it  as  a  motive. 

Salvation  is  a  state  of  mind,  not  any  external  achievement.  We 
may  fail  in  business  or  in  any  other  effort  to  which  we  devote  life; 
but  if  we  have  the  right  state  of  mind,  we  gain  a  success  worth 
more  than  the  accumulation  of  material  goods.  This  state  of  mind 
will  constitute  the  source  of  happiness  in  another  world  and  will 
serve  as  the  condition  for  proper  adjustment  to  the  future  life,  as 
it  is  also  in  the  present  existence,  if  we  would  only  see  it.  Hence 
the  sacrifices  that  the  soldier  makes  help  to  fix  his  character  and 
to  save  him  from  the  epicurean  temptations  of  ordinary  life. 

Peace  may  be  a  worse  state  of  civilization  than  war.  It  often 
gives  an  opportunity  for  the  vice  and  revelry  that  affect  character 
more  harmfully  than  war  can  do.  To  be  sure,  war  is  not  always 
good;  it  is  never  right  on  the  part  of  the  deliberate  aggressor, 
though  it  is  right  on  the  part  of  the  defender  against  wanton  ag¬ 
gression.  Its  value  is  determined  by  the  motives  and  ideals  of  the 
parties  involved.  War  is  better  than  peace  when  it  is  waged  for 
ideals  better  than  those  of  peace.  The  argument  against  war  is  its 
unnecessary  waste  and  loss  in  promoting  civilization.  Devotion  to 
the  cause  of  human  brotherhood  and  reason  might  effect  the  same 
result  without  the  destruction  involved  in  war.  Peace,  how'ever, 
may  cultivate  vices  and  sins  worse  than  those  of  war,  and  fatal  to 
the  spiritual  development  of  man.  If  peace  bred  the  sacrifices  and 
virtues  of  war,  then  war  would  not  be  necessary.  But  war  is  only 
the  natural  consequence  of  the  vices  which  we  mistake  for  civiliza¬ 
tion.  In  peace  we  lie  and  cheat,  in  war  we  kill ;  and  salvation  can 
be  obtained  by  neither  course. 

If  we  can  scientifically  guarantee  a  future  life  we  shall  have 
shown  that  nature  values  personality  or  consciousness  more  highly 
than  physical  life,  and  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  urge  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  human  brotherhood  with  tenfold  force.  If  any  message 


PSYCHIC  RESEARCH  AND  THE  WAR  453 

from  the  spiritual  world  can  be  accepted  because  of  its  frequent 
repetition,  it  is  that  human  brotherhood,  human  love,  alone  guar¬ 
antees  salvation.  If  that  attitude,  the  conduct  inspired  by  it,  were 
established  as  the  basis  of  social  life,  wars  would  cease  and  peace 
would  not  breed  the  sins  that  inevitably  lead  to  war. 

Many  of  the  psychic  phenomena  of  interest  to  the  public  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  present  war  have  not  been  sufficiently  accredited 
to  be  valuable  as  evidence.  The  stories  of  the  apparitions  at  Mons 
have  not  been  scientifically  verified.  The  newspaper  story  of  Mr. 
Machen,  which  innocently  gave  rise  to  one  of  the  most  important 
legends,  though  written  with  no  intention  of  misleading  readers, 
was  believed  by  thousands.  When  the  author  saw  how  it  was  being 
taken,  he  publicly  announced  that  it  was  fiction.  Probably  “  The 
White  Comrade  ”  is  genuine,  and  possibly  there  have  been  many 
apparitions  seen  by  individual  soldiers,  as  we  might  expect  in  any 
case.  But  intelligent  men  will  be  cautious  about  using  these  for 
evidence  of  survival  or  of  spirit  intervention.  Even  when  they 
occur  and  are  more  than  ordinary  hallucinations,  they  may  not 
be  what  the  popular  mind  supposes.  Visions  of  Joan  of  Arc  or  of 
Napoleon  might  be  veridical  without  actually  representing  these 
personalities.  Veridical  hallucinations  are  not  representative,  but 
symbolic.  They  may  be  externally  and  spiritually  instigated,  but 
subjectively  formed.  Our  own  memories  and  ideals  may  give  form 
to  the  apparition  even  when  it  is  caused  by  a  spirit.  There  is  over¬ 
whelming  evidence  that  messages  from  a  transcendental  world  are 
modified  by  the  mind  that  receives  them.  Our  organic  habits  give 
them  their  shape,  so  that  the  utmost  that  we  can  affirm  is  that  they 
indicate  foreign  causes,  subjectively  interpreted.  Hence  the  whole 
subject  of  the  apparitions  recorded  in  current  stories,  must  be  left 
to  much  more  careful  investigation  than  has  yet  been  possible. 
The  evidence  of  survival  and  of  spirit  intervention  must  be  of  a 
different  kind.  What  these  psychic  experiences  show  is  the  place 
that  psychic  research  may  have  in  helping  to  solve  world  problems. 
It  transfigures  life,  or  at  least  the  possibilities  of  life,  in  a  way 
impossible  to  materialistic  science. 


CHAPTER  XXX 
PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS 


WALTER  BAGEHOT  chose  “  Physics  and  Politics ”  as 
the  title  of  one  of  his  books,  though  he  did  not  discuss 
in  it  the  influence  of  physical  science  upon  social  and 
political  life.  What  he  did  consider  was  the  influence  of  heredity 
on  the  body  politic.  This  study  might  have  led  him  to  look  much 
deeper  and  to  see  the  far  larger,  though  latent,  influence  of  the 
modern  interest  in  physical  science  upon  the  tendencies  of  politics. 
At  any  rate,  Mr.  Bagehot’s  juxtaposition  of  the  two  terms  suggests 
a  contrast  between  the  physical  and  the  spiritual  conceptions  of  life 
and  their  ultimate  influence  on  ethical,  social,  and  political  affairs. 
The  clearly  developed  opposition  between  mind  and  matter,  which 
finally  issued  in  the  definite  dualism  of  Descartes,  gathered  about 
each  term  the  appropriate  associations.  Under  different  auspices 
the  development  might  have  taken  another  course,  but  the  antithesis 
between  the  Epicurean  conception  of  nature  and  life  and  the  sternly 
moralistic  Christian  idea  of  the  soul  created  opposing  centers  of 
gravity  for  men’s  beliefs.  History  records  the  varying  fortunes  of 
their  warfare. 

Physical  science  is  occupied  with  the  observation  and  study  of 
the  material  world,  and  teaches  that  the  external  forces  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  move  relentlessly  over  every  aspiration  cherished  by  the  re¬ 
ligious  mind.  Psychology,  or  the  study  of  the  soul,  has  always 
sought  in  the  inner  life  some  justification  of  the  belief  in  another 
life  when  the  grave  has  closed  over  all  we  know,  a  hope  that  would 
at  least  set  aside  the  apparent  indifference  of  the  universe  to  the 
ideals  which  arise  in  the  creatures  of  its  own  activity.  At  one 
stage  of  human  reflection  the  opposition  between  the  two  points  of 
view  was  not  so  marked  :  but  the  predisposition  to  uncompromising 
separation  of  interests  and  to  the  organization  of  these  interests 
into  opposing  groups,  has  given  matter  and  mind,  physics  and 

454 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS 


455 

psychics,  opposite  meanings.  Ideas  once  accepted  by  large  bodies 
of  men  are  not  easily  set  aside.  They  either  become  identified  with 
the  institutions  that  serve  as  their  defence,  or  habit  gives  them  a 
force  which  they  might  not  have.  Consequently,  regardless  of  their 
intrinsic  merits,  they  give  rise  to  parties  and  prej  udices  which  can¬ 
not  be  overthrown  except  by  the  prolonged  efforts  of  criticism  and 
the  gradual  adjustment  of  the  mind  to  new  ideas. 

I  have  said,  or  implied,  that  physical  science  has  exercised  a 
profound  influence  upon  modern  social  and  political  life.  This 
influence  may  be  illustrated  in  a  thousand  ways.  I  need  not  call 
attention  at  present  to  the  initial  impulse  of  the  movement,  which 
began  with  the  renaissance  as  a  reaction  against  the  excessive  occu¬ 
pation  of  men’s  minds  with  the  other  world.  To  contrast  the 
civilizations  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  present  would  be  to  bring 
out  into  strong  relief  the  two  different  tendencies  and  would  clearly 
exhibit  the  influences  which  have  gradually  resulted  in  the  domi¬ 
nation  of  physical  science  over  the  life  of  man.  If  we  compare 
the  meager  comforts  and  enjoyments  of  the  first  fifteen  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era  with  the  multiplied  resources  for  pleasure 
which  we  now  possess,  and  consider  the  reluctance  of  the  material 
universe  to  concede  any  favors  not  extorted  from  it,  we  shall  form 
some  conception  of  the  power  of  physical  science.  The  railway, 
the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  ocean  travel,  the  mechanical  inventions 
that  cheapen  labor  and  multiply  products,  cheap  printing,  and  a 
thousand  forms  of  satisfaction  and  comfort  that  ancient  and  medi- 
ieval  societies  would  not  have  dreamed  of,  are  now  the  common¬ 
places  of  the  poor.  They  are  all  due  to  physical  science,  which 
had  to  win  its  way  against  the  stubborn  opposition  of  more  con¬ 
servative  beliefs  and  habits.  They  are  all  indications  of  the  effect 
of  physics  on  our  institutions. 

The  economic  ideal,  which  is  only  another  term  for  the  physical 
conception  of  society  and  human  action,  is  now  dominant,  and 
wealth  is  the  standard  of  success  and  social  recognition.  This 
standard  has  been  accepted  even  by  the  religious  institutions  of  the 
age;  and  we  have  so  far  departed  from  the  spiritual  conception  of 
life  as  to  neglect  all  features  of  it  except  intellectual  culture,  which 
is  valued  more  for  its  efficiency  in  the  economic  and  social  world 


456  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

than  for  the  development  of  the  soul.  Such  are  the  triumphs  of 
physical  science  and  the  ideals  fostered  by  it.  Its  utility  is  demon¬ 
strated  by  its  success  in  supplying  the  comforts  which  seem  to  us 
both  a  pleasure  in  themselves  and  a  protection  against  the  cruelties 
of  nature.  The  older  religious  ideals,  which  despised  these  com¬ 
forts  as  “  carnal  ”  and  turned  the  imagination  toward  another  world, 
the  “  Elysian  fields  where  joy  forever  reigns,”  as  contrasted  with  this 
life  of  pain  and  suffering,  have  lost  the  basis  on  which  they  rested. 
We  have  found  physical  and  economic  salvation  in  the  conquest  of 
nature,  instead  of  despising  its  power  and  living  in  penury  and  con¬ 
templative  asceticism.  Physics  has  determined  and  dominated  all 
the  ideals  of  our  life  and  must  affect  our  ethics  in  proportion  as  it 
has  supplanted  the  spiritual  conceptions  of  another  philosophy. 
How  far  this  influence  will  extend  depends  upon  the  degree  to 
which  it  takes  possession  of  the  lower  strata  of  society. 

The  rejuvenation  of  the  social  order  and  of  civilization  fell  to 
Christianity  after  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
one  central  tenet  of  Christianity  is  its  association  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  with  the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  did  not  begin  in  a 
system  of  philosophy  or  theology.  A  reasoned  theism  was  no  part 
of  its  primary  impulse,  however  closely  it  might  be  related  to  such 
a  system.  The  divine  supervision  of  the  world  was  not  its  funda¬ 
mental  belief,  though  it  might  be  accepted  as  a  corollary  of  the 
primary  doctrine.  The  belief  in  a  future  life  was  its  initial  doc¬ 
trine,  and  received  its  credentials  from  an  appeal  to  real  or  alleged 
facts.  The  view  that  immortality  can  be  accepted  as  the  corollary 
of  a  theistic  interpretation  of  nature  was  a  later  conception,  arising 
when  Christianity  was  so  far  removed  from  its  origin  that  its 
miracles  and  traditions  were  objects  of  suspicion.  This  first  in¬ 
spiration  was  received  from  the  direct  observation  of  facts,  or 
alleged  facts,  which  directly  challenged  the  prevailing  materialism. 
The  Epicureans  had  denied  the  possibility  of  survival  after  death, 
and  their  philosophy  dominated  Rome  in  its  declining  days  and  the 
most  important  political  sect  in  Palestine,  the  Sadducees.  Judaism 
was  no  longer  under  the  direction  of  its  older  religious  conceptions, 
which  had  indeed  never  made  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
a  social  influence.  Such  a  belief  could  not  become  important  to 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  457 

social  institutions  until  it  was  used  to  enforce  certain  ethical  maxims. 
What  gave  the  immortality  of  the  soul  its  ethical  and  political  value 
was  its  association  with  the  brotherhood  of  man  in  the  doctrine  of 
salvation.  Neither  Judaistic  nor  Greek  civilization  attached  any 
special  importance  to  the  doctrine  as  a  means  of  enjoining  the  vir¬ 
tues  that  would  lead  to  happiness  beyond  the  grave.  The  doctrine 
of  probation  for  a  future  life  had  not  yet  developed.  It  was  latent 
in  the  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  was  perhaps  an  uncon¬ 
scious  factor  in  the  ethical  position  of  some  Hebrews,  though  it  was 
not  sufficiently  active  in  that  religious  system  to  obtain  any  definite 
recognition.  In  Greco-Roman  literature  a  doctrine  of  probation 
as  an  encouragement  of  virtue  is  apparent.  We  all  know  it  in  the 
works  of  Plato  and  Vergil,  and  they  but  reflected,  in  this  respect,  the 
popular  religion,  so  that  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
as  held  by  them  already  foreshadowed  the  later  view  of  salvation. 
It  did  not,  however,  take  on  the  fire  and  enthusiasm  of  a  religion 
until  social  and  political  life  began  to  break  up  and  men  felt  that 
there  was  no  hope  of  realizing  their  ideals  in  a  world  that  offered 
so  much  resistance  to  their  struggles.  Physics  and  politics  were 
against  them,  the  one  making  creature  comforts,  the  other  social 
freedom  impossible  to  obtain.  In  this  condition  of  things  it  was 
natural  to  turn  the  eyes  to  some  future  world  either  as  a  reward 
for  following  duty  or  as  a  punishment  for  transgression.  In  this 
way  the  thought  of  immortality  began  to  encourage  the  perform¬ 
ance  of  duties  hitherto  sanctioned  only  by  society ;  and  the  happiness 
which  a  decaying  world  could  not  grant  in  this  life  was  hoped  for 
in  another.  The  organization  of  virtue  and  happiness  around  the 
concept  of  a  future  life  gave  it  the  power  to  influence  ethics  and 
politics.  The  assertion  of  the  persistence  of  personality  was  im¬ 
portant  to  the  individual,  and  the  association  of  the  idea  with  human 
brotherhood  gave  it  an  influence  on  political  institutions. 

In  the  present  age,  which  represents  a  reaction  against  the  ex¬ 
treme  other-worldliness  of  the  mediaeval  period,  there  are  many 
who  will  question  the  value  of  belief  in  immortality.  They  will 
point  to  the  superior  civilization  which  has  been  the  result  of  the 
conquests  of  physical  science.  While  I  shall  not  gainsay  much  that 
is  urged  in  support  of  this  contention,  I  may  call  attention  to  two 


458  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

facts.  The  first  is,  that  all  this  conquest  of  nature  was  rendered 
possible  by  the  firm  establishment  in  men’s  minds  of  the  virtues 
which  gave  stability  to  the  social  order  and  so  made  possible  the 
continuity  of  scientific  progress.  The  second  is,  that  we  are  too 
closely  attached  to  a  materialistic  order  as  yet  to  see  its  tendencies 
and  consequences,  except  as  they  are  beginning  to  reveal  themselves 
in  the  decadence  of  the  virtues  that  protected  the  advance  of  physi¬ 
cal  science  itself.  Moreover  the  materialist  may  not  be  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  to  estimate  rightly  the  nature  of  the  order  which  he  denies. 
His  victories  over  the  physical  world,  in  subordinating  it  to  his 
desires,  may  blind  him  to  the  value  of  what  he  lost  by  turning  his 
view  from  the  spiritual  conception  of  man  and  life.  The  distortion 
of  this  conception  in  the  past  has  concealed  from  us  the  better 
aspects  of  the  spiritual  ideal;  and,  while  we  are  forced  by  our 
nature  to  make  concessions  to  the  demands  of  the  physical  world,  it 
is  just  as  easy  to  overestimate  the  value  of  the  physical  as  of  the 
spiritual.  We  may  therefore  turn  a  scrutinizing  and  skeptical  eye 
toward  the  confident  worship  of  physical  science  which  is  trying  to 
supplant  the  conceptions  that  have  made  us  rise  above  nature  while 
we  conquered  it. 

However,  we  may  disregard  the  question  of  ethical  value  and 
limit  our  consideration  to  the  efficacy  of  the  spiritual  view  as  an 
agent  in  the  determination  of  human  institutions.  The  Middle 
Ages  are  proof  of  the  power  of  belief  in  a  future  life  to  affect  civil 
institutions.  That  influence  may  have  been  good  or  bad.  But  its 
effectiveness  as  a  motive  is  well  authenticated  by  twenty  centuries  of 
history.  What  I  wish  to  show  is  that  all  general  ideas  inevitably 
affect  ethical  and  political  institutions  in  proportion  to  their  suc¬ 
cess  in  organizing  about  them  the  various  customs  and  duties  which 
they  are  made  to  protect.  If  other  general  ideas  are  thus  effective, 
we  may  establish  a  presumption  that  the  belief  of  immortality  is  of 
similar  character.  This  conception,  with  its  relation  to  important 
ethical  ideas,  will  hardly  fall  short  of  others  in  the  power  to  mold 
human  life  and  institutions.  Let  us  illustrate  by  reference  to  be¬ 
liefs  which  have  no  ethical  implications. 

The  effect  of  a  general  conception  on  human  conduct  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  influence  of  monotheism  in  religion  and  monism 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS 


459 

in  philosophy  on  the  tendencies  of  Greek  politics.  In  the  earlier 
stages  of  her  development  Greece  was  under  the  domination  of 
polytheism  in  religion  and  of  provincialism  in  politics.  Indeed 
they  were  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  influence  of  local  divini¬ 
ties  was  as  noticeable  as  it  was  during  the  struggle  of  Judaism  for 
Jehovah  against  foreign  gods.  Polytheism  was  itself  the  expression 
of  local  independence,  and  nothing  could  incite  the  Grecian  states 
to  any  unity  of  action  except  threatened  invasion  by  Persia.  The 
warfare  of  the  gods  both  expressed  or  perpetuated  the  same  state 
of  affairs  in  the  Achaean  peninsula.  In  the  colder  region  of  phi¬ 
losophy  the  same  idea  was  expressed  in  the  conception  of  Chaos 
followed  by  a  multiple  of  elements  always  in  the  process  of  union 
and  disruption.  The  religious  and  philosophic  ideas  ran  parallel 
and  had  their  influence  on  political  action,  which  consisted  of  per¬ 
petual  war  and  preparation  for  war.  Brotherhood  and  the  arts  of 
peace  were  hardly  possible  when  the  gods  set  no  ethical  example 
and  when  nature  was  conceived  as  a  chaos  of  elements  struggling 
into  a  casual  and  transient  order. 

But  Xenophanes,  the  philosopher,  came  forward  to  express  in 
one  conception  the  unity  of  nature  and  of  the  Divine.  He  insisted, 
against  both  anthropomorphism  and  polytheism,  that  there  was  but 
one  God  and  that  he  was  not  human  in  character.  The  philoso¬ 
phers,  who  were  the  educators  of  the  statesmen,  urged  this  view; 
and,  with  the  rise  of  skepticism  concerning  the  character  of  the 
gods,  it  gained  possession  of  all  thinking  minds.  Instead  of  a 
chaos  of  warring  elements,  the  world  was  conceived  as  a  cosmos, 
an  orderly  arrangement  of  harmonious  elements.  Hardly  had 
philosophy  achieved  this  triumph  when  Alexander  the  Great  under¬ 
took  to  extend  the  area  of  empire.  We  must  not  forget  that  he 
was  educated  by  Aristotle,  the  greatest  of  philosophers,  and,  as 
Dante  called  him,  the  “  master  of  those  who  know.”  Aristotle  may 
not  have  approved  of  the  military  conquests  of  his  ward;  but  that 
conception  of  unity  and  order  expressed  in  the  Demiourgos  of 
Plato,  the  Nous  of  Anaxagoras,  and  the  primurn  mobile  of  Aris¬ 
totle,  was  the  precursor  of  the  empires  of  Alexander  the  Great  and 
of  Julius  Caesar.  It  brought  forth  directly  in  the  Stoics  the  antici¬ 
pation  of  Christianity  expressed  in  their  conception  of  the  brother- 


460  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

hood  of  man.  Whether  because  of  indolence  or  social  corruption 
and  decay,  they  did  not  put  their  doctrine  into  practical  effect,  and 
the  traditions  of  war  kept  back  human  redemption  until  another 
civilization  could  revive  it  under  the  wings  of  theism  and  the  belief 
of  immortality,  when  the  “  wars  and  commotions  that  had  revolved 
through  long  tracts  of  time  had  terminated  in  one  immense  do¬ 
minion  and  the  troubled  elements  of  human  society  sank  into  uni¬ 
versal  calm.  The  spirit  of  war,  wearied  by  perpetual  carnage,  had 
seemed  willing  to  enjoy  a  moment’s  slumber  or  was  hushed  into 
silence  by  the  advent  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.” 

The  brotherhood  of  man  came  first  as  the  ideal  of  a  philosophy 
unable  to  contend  against  the  decadence  of  the  social  system  that 
Plato  had  tried  to  preserve.  But  belief  in  the  unity  of  nature  ex¬ 
tended  the  conception  of  government  and  left  to  all  posterity  the 
ideal  of  a  state  that  shall  realize  universal  empire  without  conquest, 
an  ideal  that  arbitration  and  the  Court  of  The  Hague  are  now  at¬ 
tempting  to  bring  about. 

Let  me  take,  as  another  instance  of  the  influence  of  a  concept 
on  conduct  and  politics,  Copernican  astronomy.  Until  the  six¬ 
teenth  century  it  was  the  universal  belief  that  the  sun  went  around 
the  earth.  The  earth  was  conceived  as  the  center  of  the  universe 
toward  which  all  heavy  matter  moved  unless  sustained  by  some 
mysterious  power.  There  was  no  theory  of  gravity  to  explain  this 
motion.  The  earth  was  supposed  to  be  flat,  and,  without  adequate 
means  of  navigation,  there  was  no  way  to  refute  this  hypothesis. 
The  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  age  prevented  the  exercise 
of  that  adventurous  spirit  which  later  surmounted  so  many  obsta¬ 
cles.  The  known  limits  of  the  earth  were  very  narrow,  and,  with 
no  unifying  conception  like  gravitation  to  explain  the  cosmos  and 
the  relations  of  its  parts,  the  mind  was  left  free  to  believe  in  all 
sorts  of  capricious  powers  or  beings  as  explanation  of  such  unity 
as  was  actually  found. 

But  the  Ptolemaic  system  had  its  anomalies  which  appeared  con¬ 
fusing  to  Copernicus.  He  simply  asked  whether  the  hypothesis 
that  the  earth  moves  about  the  sun  would  not  satisfy  all  the  de¬ 
mands  of  an  explanation  and  eliminate  the  perplexities  which  had 
to  be  solved  in  the  Ptolemaic  system  by  suppositions  as  disturbing 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  461 

as  the  primary  assumption.  Copernicus  saw  that  this  new  theory 
fitted,  and  so  clear  were  its  consequences  that  the  priests  thought  to 
overthrow  it  by  asserting  that,  if  it  were  true,  the  planets  would 
show  phases  as  does  the  moon.  Galileo  accepted  the  challenge  and 
pointed  out  the  phases  of  Venus.  From  that  time  on  the  triumph 
of  Copernican  astronomy  was  assured.  This  discovery  may  be 
said  to  have  given  the  initial  impulse  to  the  Protestant  Reforma¬ 
tion.  It  was  not  so  felt,  nor  was  it  a  part  of  any  conscious  revolt 
against  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  but  it  was  a  decisive  triumph  over  accepted  ideas.  The  stu¬ 
pidity  of  the  church  had  given  the  incipient  scientific  spirit  an  op¬ 
portunity  to  display  its  power.  That  stupidity  consisted  in  having 
linked  religious  beliefs  too  closely  with  the  fortunes  of  a  cosmic 
theory  that  was  not  true.  At  first  Christianity  was  concerned  only 
with  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  and 
the  worship  of  God,  without  concern  for  any  speculations  about  the 
nature  of  the  world.  But  in  becoming  the  heir  to  the  Roman  Em¬ 
pire  as  an  agent  for  the  reorganization  of  society,  the  church  ap¬ 
propriated  the  domain  of  physical  knowledge  and  associated  it  so 
closely  with  its  scheme  of  salvation  that  the  least  break  in  its  w^all 
would  threaten  it  with  destruction.  Its  power  frightened  every 
inquirer  aw'ay  from  the  study  of  nature,  and  kept  men  respectfully 
silent  concerning  everything  but  the  prevailing  conceptions  in  poli¬ 
tics  and  religion,  and  in  these  fields  expression  had  to  be  obsequious 
and  flattering.  The  church  had  complete  control  of  knowledge  and 
behavior. 

This  coalition  of  science  and  religion  was  both  a  strength  and  a 
weakness.  If  religious  belief  had  been  placed  upon  a  basis  unaf¬ 
fected  by  the  vicissitudes  of  physical  science,  no  change  in  the  con¬ 
stitution  of  that  knowledge  w'ould  have  affected  the  fortunes  of 
the  church.  It  might  have  gone  on  in  blissful  peace,  unharmed  by 
physical  discoveries.  But  the  tendency  was  to  associate  religion 
with  science,  to  identify  it  with  cosmic  views.  The  ancient  toler¬ 
ation  of  all  religions,  the  result  of  the  politician’s  indifference  to 
them  and  his  exclusive  interest  in  economic  questions,  had  kept  re¬ 
ligion  more  or  less  free  from  concern  with  physical  knowledge. 
Religious  people  were  taxed,  not  educated.  But  Christianity  set  a 


462  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

new  example.  Man  was  to  be  saved,  and  taxation  became  a  sec¬ 
ondary  interest.  The  church  set  about  the  unifying  of  human 
opinion.  With  the  machinery  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  hands, 
it  could  use  force  as  well  as  reason  to  achieve  this  unity;  and  it 
used  these  resources  with  relentless  energy.  It  was  impossible  to 
avoid  appropriating  physical  science,  such  as  it  was,  to  this  end, 
and  after  Paul  had  set  the  example  of  conceiving  man’s  sal¬ 
vation  as  a  part  of  the  cosmic  system,  it  was  only  natural  that 
the  church,  which  was  at  the  same  time  the  state,  should  monopolize 
all  knowledge  and  determine  the  right  to  believe  or  not  to  believe. 
From  the  tolerance  of  all  religious  beliefs  which  had  characterized 
Pagan  policy  it  went  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  tolerating  none  but 
its  own,  and  thus  claimed  the  keys  to  all  knowledge  physical  and 
spiritual,  holding  the  scepter  of  political  power  to  enforce  its  claims. 

It  will  be  apparent  that  the  whole  system  was  thus  delicately  bal¬ 
anced.  The  effectual  disturbance  of  any  part  of  it  involved  the 
whole  in  ruin,  though  it  would  take  as  many  ages  to  effect  the  dis¬ 
solution  as  it  would  take  to  educate  the  whole  mass  of  believers. 
Copernican  astronomy  established  the  falsity  of  one  of  the  funda¬ 
mental  tenets  of  the  church.  Confidence  in  its  authority  and  wis¬ 
dom  was  irretrievably  shaken  by  the  proof  that  the  Ptolemaic  con¬ 
ception  of  celestial  action  was  false.  To  yield  without  resistance 
and  to  reconstruct  its  position  in  accordance  with  the  new  point  of 
view  was  as  much  the  policy  of  wisdom  as  it  was  of  allegiance 
to  the  truth.  But  the  church  would  have  none  of  this  policy.  It 
forced  Copernicus  to  recant  and  threatened  Galileo  with  the  stake. 
It  clearly  saw  the  consequences  of  the  new  knowledge  and  thought 
to  controvert  its  influence.  No  doubt  there  were  sporadic  and 
perhaps  frequent  cases  of  skepticism  throughout  this  period,  but 
the  skeptic  is  not  usually  a  missionary  and  is  adept  in  the  prudences 
which  center  about  self-preservation;  besides,  the  power  of  those  in 
authority  was  so  great  as  to  make  any  other  course  than  prudence 
appear  foolhardy.  Only  when  a  man  had  the  courage  of  a  martyr 
would  he  venture  to  question  the  integrity  of  the  system  under  which 
he  lived. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  those  who  sought  to  correct  the  scien¬ 
tific  beliefs  of  the  time  still  sincerely  adhered  to  the  religious  doc- 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  463 

trines  of  the  church.  But  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal  insisted  that 
physical  science  was  intimately  bound  up  with  its  scheme  of  salva¬ 
tion  and  spiritual  philosophy.  It  was  determined  that  the  new 
view  of  the  cosmos  should  not  prevail,  and  thus  exposed  itself  to 
the  tremendous  consequences  of  Galileo’s  telescope,  which  gave 
actual  sensible  proof  of  what  the  priests  themselves  had  said  should 
follow  from  the  claims  of  Copernicus.  No  more  effective  mode  of 
silencing  opposition  could  have  been  devised.  It  took  time  to  effect 
the  final  overthrow  of  ecclesiastical  domination,  but  the  coming 
destruction  was  evident  in  this  one  incident  in  the  career  of  scholas¬ 
ticism.  There  followed  Kepler’s  theory  that  the  planetary  orbits 
were  ellipses,  and  both  Galileo  and  Kepler  prepared  the  way  for 
Newton’s  theory  of  universal  gravitation.  Then  came  the  theory 
of  evolution,  which  did  for  time  what  Newton  and  Copernicus  had 
done  for  space,  unifying  cosmic  causal  action  in  both  spheres,  in 
direct  antagonism  to  the  dogmas  of  the  church. 

On  its  practical  side,  this  new  astronomy  gave  impetus  to  the 
curiosity  which  led  to  the  theory  of  Columbus  that  land  should  be 
found  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  earth.  The  next  inevitable  step 
was  to  penetrate  beyond  the  limitations  of  vision  which  the  sea 
placed  upon  human  knowledge.  To  establish  a  reason  for  under¬ 
taking  such  a  journey,  Columbus  had  to  use  the  difference  between 
the  specific  gravity  of  water  and  of  solid  matter  to  prove  that  there 
must  be  land  at  the  antipodes  to  balance  the  protrusion  of  the 
European  continent  from  the  ocean.  Step  by  step  the  whole  sys¬ 
tem  of  knowledge  and  economic  interest  led  to  this  issue.  America 
opened  up  to  the  imagination  and  cupidity  of  Europe  such  a  field 
of  adventure  and  exploitation  as  made  the  Crusades  appear  worth¬ 
less  in  comparison.  But  all  was  done  in  the  name  and  under  the 
protection  of  religion.  Neither  an  avowed  nor  a  concealed  attack 
on  that  system  was  involved.  The  new  opportunity  for  adventure 
and  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth  could  easily  claim  and  receive  the 
patronage  of  the  church.  The  ultimate  influence  of  the  new  dis¬ 
coveries  on  religious  belief  was  not  apparent.  But  the  discovery 
of  the  new  world  was  only  another  result  of  the  initial  conception 
of  Copernicus. 

The  next  step  was  a  direct  assault  on  the  authority  of  the  Pope 


464  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

and  an  attack  on  the  church  in  its  central  position.  The  Protestant 
Reformation  simply  marked  the  growth  of  the  skepticism  which 
had  been  encouraged  by  the  triumph  of  Galileo  when  he  exhibited 
to  every  human  eye  the  phases  of  Venus.  Physical  science  had  by 
this  time  established  its  claim  to  a  hearing,  more  or  less  regardless 
of  the  consequences  to  traditional  dogma.  Its  votaries,  however, 
still  claimed  allegiance  to  the  church  and  tried  to  enlist  the  new 
knowledge  in  its  defence.'  But  the  Reformation  emancipated 
thought  sufficiently  to  free  it  from  any  need  of  defending  itself 
by  obsequiousness,  and  physical  science  soon  took  a  course  which 
placed  it  in  antagonism  to  religion.  The  freedom  of  conscience 
was  only  a  corollary  to  the  freedom  of  the  intellect,  which  was 
established  beyond  the  right  of  cavil  by  the  death-blow  dealt  by 
Copernicus  to  the  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  influence  of  an  idea,  worked  out 
into  its  logical  consequences,  on  the  common  conceptions  of  man¬ 
kind  could  be  imagined.  If  astronomy  had  been  a  matter  of  in¬ 
terest  to  only  a  small  clique  of  philosophers,  its  influence  would 
have  extended  no  farther.  But  the  sense-perception  of  men  was 
so  identified  with  the  Ptolemaic  system  that  a  direct  and  intelligent 
assault  upon  it  was  necessary  to  show  the  senses  their  error.  Proof 
of  the  fallibility  of  those  who  had  been  the  depositors  of  all  knowl¬ 
edge  disturbed  the  general  confidence  and  established  a  new  source 
of  knowledge  and  a  new  standard  for  scientific  discovery  and  ad¬ 
vancement.  The  supremacy  of  the  church  was  doomed  from  that 
moment,  though  it  took  many  centuries  to  complete  its  downfall, 
aided  by  the  inventions  that,  under  the  direction  of  physical  science, 
have  so  cheapened  the  spread  of  knowledge  that  it  comes  within  the 
reach  of  the  multitude.  The  printing  press  and  the  invention  of 
paper  made  this  dissemination  possible ;  but  they  would  hardly  have 
had  permission  so  to  extend  knowledge  but  for  the  weakness  of  the 
church  after  the  enforced  surrender  of  its  old  authority  as  the  pro¬ 
tector  of  all  human  beliefs.  The  keystone  of  its  arch  was  its 
cosmogony;  and,  when  Copernicus  removed  this,  it  fell  into  ruins, 
though  it  took  time  to  relax  the  cohesiveness  of  its  parts.  The 
whole  of  modern  history  was  determined  by  this  one  revolution  in 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  465 

thought.  The  same  development  might  indeed  have  occurred  with¬ 
out  these  specific  discoveries  of  Copernicus  and  Galileo;  but  these 
were  crucial  events  in  the  actual  series  that  constitute  history.  It 
is  certain  that  the  break  in  the  wall  was  actually  accomplished  by 
Copernicus,  no  matter  how  many  before  him  may  have  seen  or 
felt  its  weakness.  The  initial  impulse  to  revolution  was  given  by 
his  conception  of  the  cosmos,  though  it  might  not  have  proved 
effective  but  for  the  sympathy  and  aid  that  he  received  from  the 
intellectual  preparation  prevalent  among  his  contemporaries.  This 
one  idea  was  the  rallying  point  for  reconstruction,  and  must  have 
the  credit  of  starting  human  knowledge  upon  the  course  of  its  sub¬ 
sequent  development. 

No  one  can  directly  trace  the  effect  of  this  scientific  revolution 
upon  politics,  but  it  is  nevertheless  a  remote  consequence  of  Co- 
pernican  astronomy  that  our  political  institutions  are  what  they 
are.  No  political  freedom  is  possible  until  men  have  obtained  in¬ 
tellectual  freedom,  and  no  one  had  this  intellectual  freedom  until 
the  progress  of  physical  science  and  discovery  had  shown  that  the 
church  held  false  views  of  the  universe.  Church  and  state  were 
so  closely  associated  that  the  slightest  disturbance  of  their  union 
was  sure  to  make  itself  felt  throughout  the  whole  organism.  The 
Reformation  recognized  this  relation,  and,  after  trying  to  obtain 
its  freedom  without  a  break  with  the  papal  system,  Germany  ob¬ 
tained  it  only  by  the  use  of  political  power.  England  soon  followed 
under  Henry  VIII,  and  the  papal  power  began  to  weaken. 
Gradually  Europe  threw  off  the  shackles  and  the  papal  supremacy 
remained  intact  only  in  Italy  and  Spain,  until  at  last  Italy  confined 
the  political  dominion  of  the  papacy  to  the  Vatican.  But  states 
^fcould  not  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  church  without  teaching  their 
subjects  the  same  rebellious  spirit.  Men  had  already  learned  to 
distrust  the  authority  of  the  priest,  first  in  science  and  finally  in 
religion.  But  gradually  the  spirit  which  had  led  men  to  resist  au¬ 
thority  on  scientific  questions  expressed  itself  in  opposition  to  the 
arbitrary  powers  of  government,  and  representative  institutions 
were  the  consequence.  Political  freedom  is  thus  traceable  to  the 
work  of  Copernicus  in  disputing  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy.  I  shall 


466  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

not  venture  to  assert  that  this  one  early  astronomic  discovery  was 
the  only  force  leading  to  the  final  result,  but  it  is  entitled  to  prece¬ 
dence  in  the  estimation  of  causes. 

We  see,  therefore,  in  the  history  of  conceptions,  those  of  the 
unity  of  the  world  and  of  the  Copemican  astronomy,  the  ultimate 
influence  of  ideas  on  social  and  political  institutions.  Both  were 
scientific  doctrines,  yet  they  affected  such  remote  concerns  as  con¬ 
stitutions  and  governments. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  influence  of  the  theory  of  evolution 
on  modern  ideas  of  nature  and  man,  and  with  its  destructive  effect 
on  the  older  ethical  ideas  and  institutions.  It  has  given  impetus 
to  the  materialistic  tendencies  of  the  age,  initiated  by  the  physical 
discoveries  of  the  past,  and  its  influence  has  not  yet  reached  its 
climax.  But  I  shall  not  work  out  the  details  of  this  last  agency  in 
modifying  our  conceptions  of  nature  and  man.  It  suffices  to  have 
shown  the  social  and  political  effects  of  two  great  physical  doc¬ 
trines,  and  then  to  ask  whether  any  special  conception  of  man  and 
his  destiny  can  have  a  similar  effect  on  human  institutions. 

One  does  not  have  to  go  beyond  Gibbon  to  know  what  influence 
on  history  the  doctrine  of  man’s  immortality  has  exercised.  It 
produced  this  effect  without  applying  the  brotherhood  of  man  in 
connection  with  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  as  it  had  been  taught 
by  the  founder  of  Christianity.  The  concept  of  human  brother¬ 
hood  was  as  much  a  reaction  against  the  narrow  policy  of  Judaism 
as  it  was  the  logical  consequence  of  Greek  monism  in  philosophy. 
Judaism  had  drawn  very  sharply  the  distinction  between  the 
“  stranger  ”  or  Gentile  and  its  own  race,  and  the  former  was  almost 
entirely  outside  the  pale  of  the  law  and  the  sanctuary.  But  when 
the  better  spirits  of  that  race  saw  the  defects  of  this  narrow  con¬ 
ception  of  God  and  man,  even  in  the  time  of  the  prophets,  they, 
like  the  Stoics,  recognized  the  wider  duties  of  human  relationship, 
though  without  expressing  them  in  civil  institutions.  The  subjuga¬ 
tion  of  Palestine  by  the  Roman  legions,  however,  brought  home  the 
lesson.  In  the  dissolution  of  the  ancient  religion  and  the  political 
institutions  of  the  Jews,  the  utter  desolation  of  both  their  sanctuary 
and  their  law,  there  came  the  sense  of  human  brotherhood  that 
never  had  appealed  to  the  national  consciousness  in  the  days  of  its 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  467 

triumphs.  The  mind  was  prepared  by  its  afflictions  and  the  loss  of 
its  national  hopes  to  listen  to  another  gospel  that  suddenly  ap¬ 
peared  on  the  horizon  —  a  belief  that  had  not  been  characteristic  of 
Judaism,  namely,  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It 
arose  in  opposition  to  the  materialism  of  the  Epicureans  that  had 
dominated  the  later  periods  of  Greco-Roman  history  and  that  had 
come  to  infect  the  sects  of  Judaism.  It  established  a  new  point 
of  view  for  the  interpretation  of  the  world  and  of  man.  With  its 
spiritual  conception  of  God,  this  new  doctrine  availed  to  give  the 
spiritual  conception  of  things  the  primary  place  in  determining  the 
meaning  of  the  cosmos  and  human  institutions.  The  ultimate 
reality  of  matter  was  denied,  and  spirit  was  regarded  as  the  cause 
instead  of  the  effect  of  matter.  The  whole  of  mediaeval  philosophy 
and  theology  was  based  upon  this  conception.  The  whole  material 
universe  was  supposed  to  have  been  created  by  spirit  and  subordi¬ 
nated  to  the  interests  of  man  and  his  salvation. 

Apart  from  comparison  and  contrast  of  the  Greek  with  the 
Judaistic  movement,  the  important  point  is  the  place  which  the 
idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  held  in  the  reconstruction  of 
political  institutions  that  had  crumbled  into  ruin  on  account  of  the 
ravages  of  materialism.  What  it  kept  in  the  forefront  of  human 
thought  was  the  value  of  the  individual  man,  the  permanent  im¬ 
portance  of  his  personality,  showing  that  it  was  this  and  not  the 
glories  of  the  state  that  survived  the  ravages  of  time.  Ancient 
civilization  had  no  such  conception  of  the  relation  between  the 
state  and  the  individual  citizen  as  we  hold.  Man  existed  for  the 
institutions,  political  and  religious,  that  prevailed.  He  was  a  serv¬ 
ant,  not  a  master,  of  the  social  order.  He  paid  his  tribute  and 
gave  his  life  to  it  without  being  able  to  exact  any  but  the  most 
meager  service  from  it.  The  state  had  all  the  rights  and  the  citizen 
none,  and  on  critical  examination  the  state  turned  out  to  be  em¬ 
bodied  in  certain  favored  individuals  with  irresponsible  power  to 
rule  the  citizen  as  they  pleased.  But  to  adopt  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  as  the  center  of  human  interest  and  to  conceive  the  cosmos 
as  an  order  subordinate  to  man’s  development  and  salvation  wrought 
a  profound  change.  It  brought  forward,  not  only  the  value  of  the 
individual,  but  also  a  conception  of  his  relation  to  things  which 


468  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

opposed  his  subordination  to  political  masters  and  made  even  nature 
a  servant  to  his  ends.  In  this  way  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
involved  human  brotherhood;  and  this  latter  idea  attained  a  prac¬ 
tical  importance,  instead  of  a  purely  speculative  interest. 

When  the  attempt  to  put  into  practice  the  brotherhood  of  man 
by  its  early  communistic  system  had  failed,  Christianity  concen¬ 
trated  its  interest  on  the  realization  of  its  kingdom  of  God  in  a 
life  beyond  the  grave;  and,  with  an  ascetic  view  of  life  and  a  pessi¬ 
mistic  view  of  nature,  it  set  about  reorganizing  ethical  and  religious 
institutions  around  the  idea  of  personal  salvation.  The  radical 
character  of  its  theistic  conception,  which  made  no  concessions  to 
materialism,  and  the  enthusiasm  for  a  future  life  resulted  in  fifteen 
centuries  of  uninterrupted  triumph  for  the  Christian  view  of  life 
and  social  relations.  The  traditions  of  government,  combined  with 
other  influences,  made  it  impossible  or  inconvenient  to  carry  out  the 
communism  implied  in  the  notion  of  human  brotherhood,  and  the 
mediaeval  period  had  to  be  content  with  charity  as  the  embodiment 
of  its  social  feeling;  and  even  this  was  regarded  as  a  means  of 
personal  salvation  rather  than  as  the  expression  of  altruistic  feel¬ 
ing.  But  two  ideas  remained  dominant  in  the  minds  of  men:  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  attainment  of  that  immortality  by 
human  service.  These  ideas  implied  the  subordination  of  the  state 
to  the  welfare  of  the  subject,  even  though  government  continued  to 
use  its  power  for  arbitrary  and  selfish  ends.  Alexander  the  Great 
and  Julius  Caesar  sought  to  establish  universal  dominion  for  the 
sake  of  the  glories  of  political  power  and  conquest;  Christianity  in 
the  Middle  Ages  sought  the  same  end,  at  least  nominally  and  osten¬ 
sibly,  for  the  salvation  of  the  citizen.  The  early  Christian’s 
“  Kingdom  of  God,”  Augustine’s  “  Civitas  Dei,”  and  the  “  Utopia  ” 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  could  not  have  been  conceived  on  any  other 
basis,  and  they  lacked  only  the  will  of  men  in  order  to  become 
effective. 

The  placing  of  man’s  hopes  in  another  life  tempted  him  to  buy 
his  salvation  with  perfunctory  works.  He  also  showed  a  contempt 
for  physical  nature  hardly  compatible  with  his  view  of  the  relation 
of  Providence  to  its  creation.  The  reaction  against  the  debauch¬ 
eries  of  Epicurean  materialism  carried  him  into  an  “  otherworldli- 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  469 

ness  ”  scarcely  less  objectionable  than  the  previous  worldliness. 
The  belief  that  matter  is  essentially  evil  in  its  nature  led  only  to 
the  fixing  of  human  vision  on  an  imaginary  world  that  was  less 
carnal  only  because  it  could  not  be  made  the  subject  of  personal 
experience  here  and  now.  Such  a  statement,  of  course,  is  qualified 
by  the  presence,  in  many  minds,  of  purer  conceptions  of  duty  and 
of  the  hereafter.  But  even  Dante’s  and  Milton’s  works  were 
founded  on  a  more  literal  interpretation  of  Christianity  than  the 
idealistic  theories  that  came  after.  The  very  necessity  of  adapting 
its  ideals  to  the  understanding  of  the  multitude  for  whose  salvation 
every  individual  was  responsible  was  an  influence  to  keep  religious 
conceptions  upon  the  plane  of  the  sensory  imagination.  Protestant¬ 
ism,  with  its  vindication  of  individual  judgment,  put  the  priest  at 
the  mercy  of  those  whom  he  had  previously  been  privileged  to  di¬ 
rect,  and  inevitably  the  standard  of  sense-perception  again  became 
the  measure  of  truth  even  in  the  strongholds  of  the  church.  With 
the  revival  of  this  point  of  view,  the  ascetic  conception  of  life  was 
sure  to  meet  criticism.  The  renaissance,  on  the  one  hand,  with  its 
revival  of  interest  in  Greek  ideals,  and  the  reinstatement  of  the  study 
of  nature  in  astronomy,  physics,  and  chemistry,  on  the  other, 
brought  into  being  the  materialistic  attitude  that  has  dominated  the 
subsequent  centuries. 

But,  if  the  priority  of  spiritual  interests  resulted  only  in  their 
overthrow  by  physical  science,  we  shall  be  asked  why  we  attempt  to 
reinstate  an  idea  that  has  been  tried  and  found  wanting.  When 
so  much  progress  has  been  effected  by  modern  science,  why  en¬ 
deavor  to  turn  its  wheel  backward? 

The  first  answer  is  that  we  have  only  been  stating  history,  not 
adopting  an  ideal.  I  have  been  mainly  interested  in  the  efficacy  of 
the  spiritual  ideal  to  produce  a  civilization  and  to  sustain  it  much 
longer  than  Greece  and  Rome  were  able  to  maintain  their  institu¬ 
tions.  If  duration  of  success  is  a  measure  of  value,  the  Christian 
conception  of  life  has  won  the  approval  of  time,  and  it  yet  remains 
for  physical  science  to  accomplish  a  similar  result. 

A  second  reply  is  simply  to  call  attention  to  the  consequences  of 
the  materialism  in  which  we  live.  One  need  not  question  the  im¬ 
portance  of  the  revival  of  physical  science;  and  this  concession  is 


470  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

not  grudgingly  made.  The  religious  mind  had  forfeited  the  confi¬ 
dence  of  most  intelligent  men  by  its  departure  from  fact,  as  well  as 
by  its  alliance  with  corrupt  political  institutions,  and  it  had  become 
so  petrified  in  external  works  and  ceremonies  that  the  really  ethical 
mind  could  not  accept  its  hypocrisies,  even  when  it  conceded  the 
value  of  ritualism  to  some  temperaments.  When  physical  science 
had  once  proved  its  ability  to  explain  the  universe,  or  at  least  to 
show  that  the  order  of  nature  had  not  been  accurately  described 
by  the  theologians,  the  way  was  opened  for  the  system  which  could 
make  the  world  appear  reasonable.  The  confidence  in  priestcraft 
was  impaired  and  in  its  place  came  the  enthusiasm  for  nature  and 
for  those  who  could  understand  its  processes  and  use  its  agencies  in 
the  service  of  human  comfort. 

The  triumph  of  physical  science  has  given  us  what  may  be  called 
the  economic  age,  an  age  in  which  the  accumulation  of  wealth  is 
greater  than  at  any  other  period  of  history.  We  enjoy  advantages 
which  antiquity  never  dreamed  of.  We  have  multiplied  the  forces 
of  invention  and  machinery,  which  increase  production  a  hundred¬ 
fold  and,  in  thus  increasing  the  supply  of  goods,  similarly  increase 
the  demand.  The  production  due  to  machinery  has  far  outstripped 
the  actual  needs  of  even  the  larger  population;  but  it  has  been 
matched  by  a  similarly  greater  consumption.  This  satisfaction  of 
an  increased  number  of  desires  leads  directly  to  the  estimation  of 
life  by  physical  instead  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  standards. 
Political  freedom  followed  the  emancipation  of  the  intellect  by 
science  and  created  preconceptions  on  which  the  average  mind  meas¬ 
ures  the  claims  of  any  belief,  while  the  reign  of  comfort  compared 
with  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  Middle  Ages  makes  most 
minds  inaccessible  to  spiritual  appeals.  Ethics  has  to  wait  on  eco¬ 
nomics,  for  when  the  latter  gets  the  first  hearing  there  is  no  time 
nor  inclination  for  the  former.  The  theater  is  preferred  to  the 
church.  We  doubt  the  reality  of  any  life  hereafter  to  make  sacri¬ 
fices  for,  and  we  “  make  hay  while  the  sun  shines,”  that  is,  we  ex¬ 
pend  all  our  labor  in  the  accumulation  of  the  means  for  physical 
enjoyment.  Travel  and  amusement  ofifer  more  pleasure  than  does 
worship,  and,  as  nature  is  not  to  be  feared  but  appropriated  to  the 
making  of  money,  there  are  no  terrors  to  blast  our  hopes.  If  we 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS  471 

can  make  our  satisfactions  of  the  sensuous  sort  sufficiently  intense, 
we  may  be  so  spiritually  benumbed  as  not  to  fear  death  any  more. 
We  face  it,  not  as  Stoics,  whose  maxims  pay  an  involuntary  tribute 
to  hopes  that  they  do  not  share,  but  as  Epicureans,  who  have  got 
all  they  want  until  their  satiated  senses  no  longer  feel  the  love  of 
life.  We  expect  the  sacrifices  w'e  make  to  be  repaid  with  interest, 
and  we  place  our  political  power  in  the  hands  of  the  “  business  ” 
man  who  knows  how  to  play  the  part  of  a  sophist  while  he  rifles  our 
pockets.  The  standards  of  success  are  those  of  the  money  maker, 
not  those  of  the  moralist.  The  measure  of  social  standing  is 
wealth,  not  intellect  nor  conscience.  We  are  unable  to  accomplish 
anything  without  money,  and  common  labor  is  a  disgrace.  All  the 
duties  of  the  world  rest  on  the  poor  and  all  the  liberties  are  with 
the  rich. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  overestimate  the  influence  of  this  mate¬ 
rialism.  We  all  know  its  power,  but  ignore  its  tendencies.  Our 
philosophy  does  not  protect  us  against  the  insidious  encroachments 
of  this  materialism,  which  I's  as  triumphant  in  speculation  as  in  prac¬ 
tice.  We  think  Idealism  is  no  protection  against  it,  for  in  fact  there 
is  no  difference  between  them  in  Aeir  practical  w^orking.  except 
that  one  prizes  intellectual  accomplishments  and  the  other  financial 
success  and  sensuous  enjoyments;  neither  acts  on  the  supposition 
that  we  have  a  soul  that  survives  death.  The  first  great  philosophi¬ 
cal  assault  on  Christian  theology  was  the  doctrine  of  the  inde¬ 
structibility  of  matter.  Christianity  affirmed  the  secondary  and 
created  nature  of  matter  in  all  its  forms,  both  sensible  and  super¬ 
sensible.  Plato  had  maintained  that  the  function  of  Providence 
was  only  to  arrange  the  cosmic  elements  in  their  order.  Anaxa¬ 
goras  had  held  the  same  view  of  his  Reason  or  Nous.  Aristotle 
had  his  primum  mobile  start  the  universe  and  then  sit  back  in  con¬ 
templative  bliss  to  watch  it  go.  The  Epicureans  had  taught  that 
chance  coincidence  brought  together  the  eternal  elements  or  atoms 
and  that  the  whole  creation  was  brought  about  by  these  chance  com¬ 
binations  of  imperishable  atoms.  But  Christianity  assaulted  this 
central  position  of  the  indestructibility  of  matter  and  took  spirit  to 
be  the  permanent  reality.  But  the  scientific  proof  of  the  inde¬ 
structibility  of  matter  and  later  of  the  conservation  of  energy  ex- 


472  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

posed  the  error  of  this  position,  and  the  main  philosophic  fortress 
of  Christianity  was  captured.  The  inevitable  effect  was  to  give 
matter  the  priority  in  speculative  interest  and  to  subordinate  spirit 
to  it.  Spirit,  from  being  the  substance  of  reality,  became  its  phe¬ 
nomenon,  a  transient  accompaniment  of  it  in  some  of  its  manifold 
organic  forms.  This  view  was  soon  supported  by  the  discoveries 
of  physiology,  in  which  consciousness  seemed  to  be  the  victimized 
creature  of  brain  functions,  not  the  ruler  of  a  material  organism. 
All  the  phenomena  which  the  older  view  had  regarded  as  proving  the 
existence  of  a  soul  came  to  be  regarded  as  mere  incidents  in  the 
casual  development  of  material  bodies.  Materialism  became  tri¬ 
umphant  and  the  human  mind,  liberated  from  the  speculative  and 
political  shackles  of  the  mediaeval  period,  began  to  enjoy  its  free¬ 
dom  in  gradually  breaking  away  from  all  the  restraints  that  had 
developed  and  sustained  the  social,  political,  and  religious  conscience 
for  so  many  centuries.  We  are  still  living  in  the  period  of  rapid 
decline  of  the  ethical  impulse,  and  nothing  but  the  possibility  of 
reinstating  a  spiritual  view  of  nature  and  life  can  restrain  the 
progress  of  that  retrograde  movement. 

The  effect  upon  politics  was  felt  as  soon  as  the  spiritual  view  of 
nature  and  life  had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  public.  Materialism 
relaxed  the  force  of  conscience  while  it  opened  the  physical  world 
to  unlimited  exploitation.  All  our  laws  are  judged  by  those  in 
power  according  to  their  relation  to  “  business  ”  or  the  accumulation 
of  wealth,  and  the  politician  is  as  conscienceless  as  was  the  tax- 
gatherer  in  the  Roman  Empire.  He  has  no  ideals  of  human  wel¬ 
fare,  but  only  the  desire  to  make  the  citizen  pay  tribute  to  his 
avaricious  ambitions.  If  he  can  manipulate  the  laws  he  will  save 
himself  the  trouble  of  work.  The  common  citizen  becomes  satu¬ 
rated  with  the  same  ideals,  and  society  is  a  struggle  for  wealth  in¬ 
stead  of  for  character.  Science  is  on  the  side  of  materialism  and 
all  intelligence  is  against  the  church.  But  on  all  the  issues  that 
concern  the  correction  of  materialism  the  church  itself  is  divided 
and  is  hopelessly  implicated  in  the  same  ideals  as  our  political  sys¬ 
tem.  In  order  to  hold  itself  together  the  church  has  been  obliged 
to  resort  to  everything  except  the  appeal  to  intelligence  and  may 
soon  be  reduced  to  mumbling  a  ritual  over  the  cerements  of  its 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS 


473 

past.  Materialism  governs  the  thought  and  action  of  the  common 
laborer,  who  was  once  under  the  influence  of  religion,  and  of  the 
highest  officers  of  state,  who  were  once  proud  to  serve  the  public, 
but  now  have  only  a  predatory  interest  in  the  service  which  they 
can  extort  from  the  helpless  citizens.  We  are  following  the  path 
of  Greco-Roman  civilization  in  the  days  of  its  decadence,  because 
the  same  economic  and  social  forces  are  operative  now  as  then, 
under  the  loss  of  the  ethical  ideals  and  beliefs  of  the  preceding 
religious  period.  The  laboring  classes  have  abandoned  their  reli¬ 
gion,  and  are  struggling  with  the  capitalists  for  a  share  in  the 
profits  of  production.  Their  philosophy  and  ideals  are  the  same  as 
those  of  the  capitalist;  they  too  are  straining  their  efforts  only  to 
secure  a  larger  share  of  materialistic  reward. 

I  am  not  questioning  the  right  to  insist  on  economic  justice  nor 
even  the  importance  of  more  nearly  equal  distribution  of  the 
world’s  goods.  But  the  value  of  this  larger  share  will  depend 
wholly  upon  the  use  to  which  it  is  put  when  it  has  been  acquired. 
Money  is  power,  and  like  all  power  it  should  receive  respect  only 
in  proportion  to  its  furtherance  of  ethical  ideals.  Materialism 
offers  no  ideals  but  those  of  sense  to  the  majority  of  men;  the  few 
who  follow  the  intellectual  life  make  it  an  otiose  escape  from 
toil.  The  ultimate  value  of  this  culture  and  of  the  inner  life  is  not 
indicated.  It  is  to  end  in  the  grave  and  nothing  is  to  be  left  to  our 
children  but  the  short  memory  of  it.  The  redemption  that  we  seek 
is  from  poverty,  not  from  sin.  The  joys  of  life  are  those  of  the 
table,  the  holiday,  and  the  theater. 

This  is  a  dark  picture,  and  there  are  not  wanting  exceptions  to 
whom  such  a  judgment  does  not  apply.  I  have  no  doubt  that  more 
than  five  can  be  found  to  save  our  modern  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 
There  is  always  a  sufficient  leaven  to  protect  the  whole  from  final 
destruction ;  but  it  is  the  part  of  a  discussion  like  this  to  point  out 
the  tendencies  that  might  reduce  the  saving  influences  to  impotency. 
We  need  above  all  to  revive  the  spiritual  meaning  of  existence.  I 
do  not  mean  that  we  shall  return  to  the  beliefs  of  the  past,  nor  that 
we  have  to  subordinate  the  material  universe  to  spirit  in  the  same 
sense  as  before.  Certain  discoveries  of  physical  science  with  their 
implications  must  remain  a  permanent  acquisition  of  knowledge  and 


474  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

practice.  They  have  taught  us  to  acknowledge  that  inflexible  order 
of  nature  which  is  quite  as  important  to  our  ethics  as  any  revelation 
of  its  limitations.  A  part  of  man’s  salvation  lies  in  the  humility 
which  a  fixed  order  makes  necessary;  only  false  pride  can  come 
from  feeling  that  he  has  nature  always  at  his  command.  A  limita¬ 
tion  on  the  will  is  quite  as  important  as  freedom,  and  a  materialism 
which  imposes  inexorable  limits  to  human  arrogance  is  quite  as 
ethical  an  influence  as  any  view  which  makes  man  despise  nature. 
But  materialism  may  be  as  onesided  as  spiritualism;  we  need  to 
restore  the  importance  of  consciousness  and  duty  in  the  world,  and 
this  restoration  depends  on  the  proof  that  there  is  a  soul  and  a  future 
life  instead  of  mental  phenomena  that  are  mere  incidental  functions 
of  the  brain. 

If  psychic  research  promises  anything  to  the  world  it  holds  out 
hope  of  throwing  light  upon  the  nature  and  destiny  of  the  soul,  and 
of  doing  this  by  the  scientific  method  instead  of  by  pure  speculation 
or  faith.  If  belief  in  immortality  carries  the  same  assurance  that 
we  have  of  Copernican  astronomy,  Newtonian  gravitation,  and 
Darwinian  evolution,  it  will  have  an  efficacy  that  can  never  attach  to 
a  belief  not  so  assured. 

The  revival  of  the  importance  of  spirit  in  nature  will  have  the 
same  power  to  uphold  moral  agencies  in  the  world  that  it  had  in 
the  past.  The  value  that  the  doctrine  gives  to  human  personality 
enables  the  teacher  of  mankind  to  enforce  his  ideals  of  morality. 
We  have  seen  what  a  subordinate  place  the  individual  had  in  the 
politics  of  antiquity,  when  the  social  system  took  no  account  of  the 
importance  of  personality  and  of  our  duty  to  save  it.  No  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  salvation  of  our  neighbor  was  inculcated  in 
the  ancient  religion  or  politics.  Those  in  power  were  at  liberty 
to  exploit  the  rest  of  mankind  as  they  pleased.  But  Christianity 
created  a  new  social  standard,  based  upon  the  importance  of  the 
individual  soul  and  our  responsibility  for  its  salvation.  The  ma¬ 
terialistic  reaction  has  threatened  this  conception  with  extinction,  as 
is  apparent  in  the  new  imperialism  that  has  arisen  and  in  the  con¬ 
tempt  for  other  races  that  has  followed.  We  no  longer  feel  the 
racial  sympathy  that  the  missionary  felt  or  the  sense  of  the  unity 
of  the  human  race  created  by  the  obligation  to  extend  the  influence 


PSYCHICS  AND  POLITICS 


475 

of  Christianity.  We  have  adopted  morals  that  threaten  our  own 
race  with  extinction  and  then  despise  or  fear  those  races  that  prom¬ 
ise  to  take  our  place.  That  our  social  conduct  might  injure  a  soul’s 
life  after  death  does  not  enter  into  our  calculations.  But  if  we  can 
prove  that  the  materialistic  theory  of  consciousness  is  false  and 
that  man  has  a  more  important  end  than  the  satisfaction  of  his 
bodily  wants  and  his  merely  earthly  happiness  we  shall  have  estab¬ 
lished  a  new  fulcrum  for  the  moralist. 

It  is  not  the  mere  fact  that  we  survive  death  that  will  affect  the 
conduct  of  individuals  and  societies,  but  its  place  in  the  organic 
system  of  ideas  of  the  body  politic.  It  was  not  the  mere  belief 
in  immortality  that  gave  Christianity  its  efficacy,  but  its  doctrine  of 
limited  probation  that  enabled  it  to  carry  out  both  its  ecclesiastical 
and  political  policies.  But  that  doctrine  of  probation  would  have 
had  no  meaning  at  all  without  belief  in  a  future  life.  It  is  clear 
that  belief  in  a  future  life  is  the  best  fortification  for  all  the  duties 
which  have  a  relation  to  an  existence  beyond  the  present.  If  we 
can  organize  in  association  with  that  belief  a  stronger  sense  of 
human  brotherhood  it  must  ultimately  influence  our  political  institu¬ 
tions  as  profoundly  as  did  the  fifteen  centuries  of  Christian  su¬ 
premacy,  though  it  may  take  as  long  to  attain  that  end.  But  this 
time  it  has  scientific  method  and  authority  instead  of  mere  faith  and 
opinion  to  support  it.  If  science  can  furnish  men  a  creed  by  which 
they  are  to  live  for  some  end  other  than  the  present  life,  the  recon¬ 
ciliation  between  science  and  religion,  which  has  been  so  long 
sought,  may  easily  be  attained. 

I  have  not  appealed  to  the  sentimental  value  of  the  belief  in  any¬ 
thing  that  I  have  said  of  its  importance.  I  have  emphasized  only 
the  intellectual  place  which  it  may  hold  in  supporting  or  recon¬ 
structing  the  foundations  of  ethics  and  moral  idealism.  Its  influ¬ 
ence  on  the  griefs  and  sufferings  of  mankind  is  scarcely  less  great 
than  the  influence  of  medicine,  and  is  capable  of  being  made  greater. 
On  that  feature  of  its  value  I  shall  not  dwell.  If  the  theory  of  evo¬ 
lution  can  modify  all  the  maxims  which  prevented  men  from  model¬ 
ling  their  attitude  toward  their  neighbors  after  the  standards  of 
nature,  we  may  well  imagine  what  a  defence  of  humanitarianism 
may  be  based  upon  the  proof  of  survival  after  death,  especially  if 


476  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

we  find,  as  we  may,  that  the  destiny  of  every  man  is  affected  by  the 
character  of  his  physical  life  quite  as  much  as  by  the  habits  of  his 
soul.  It  is  at  least  certain  that  a  new  measure  of  human  value  will 
come  into  use  if  we  find  nature  to  be  as  careful  of  personality  as  she 
is  of  the  elements.  The  certainty  of  the  survival  of  personality 
will  put  a  stop  to  all  those  skeptical  discussions  which  postpone  the 
acceptance  of  ethical  standards  founded  on  immortality  until  the 
proof  of  survival  is  presented.  It  will  give  the  idealists  a  chance  to 
reanimate  that  estimate  of  life  from  which  spring  both  poetry  and 
religion,  and  with  these  that  sense  of  human  relationship  which  may 
do  more  to  reconstruct  politics  than  all  other  intellectual  forces. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS 


The  facts  reported  in  this  volume  are  but  samples  from  a 
thousandfold  larger  mass,  whose  meaning  is  apparent. 
Whatever  skepticism  prevails  regarding  them  is  due  to 
Aarious  influences.  Sometimes  it  is  mere  prejudice,  sometimes  it 
is  ignorance  both  of  the  problem  and  of  the  facts;  and  there  is  much 
opposition  that  is  based  on  neither  prejudice  nor  ignorance,  but  on 
mere  intellectual  obstinacy  and  pride.  It  is  easy  to  oppose  any 
belief  if  you  are  so  disposed.  Reasons  can  always  be  given,  whether 
rational  or  not,  against  a  theory,  if  one  chooses  to  give  them.  The 
“  will  to  disbelieve  ”  is  quite  as  prevalent  as  the  “  will  to  believe,” 
and  is  no  more  creditable.  Much  prejudice  and  ignorance  are 
excusable,  when  we  consider  how  powerfully  environment  acts  on 
our  beliefs.  Unanimity  of  opinion  is  essential  to  any  social  order. 
We  keep  out  of  perpetual  war  only  by  agreeing  on  something.  Our 
interests  are  so  bound  up  with  the  opinion  of  the  community  that 
it  is  not  safe  for  us  to  take  the  part  of  rebels.  Hence  we  accept 
the  ideas  in  which  we  are  born  and  bred.  Childhood  trusts,  and 
our  beliefs  are  largely  made  in  childhood.  The  line  of  least  re¬ 
sistance  is  to  follow  the  ideas  of  the  community.  Prejudice  is, 
therefore,  more  or  less  unavoidable,  at  least  on  matters  about  Avhich 
we  have  little  or  no  opportunity  to  work  out  systematic  beliefs. 
Ignorance  is  but  an  accompaniment  of  these  influences  and  is  more 
excusable  than  prejudice,  because  the  latter  has  a  tendency  to  in¬ 
clude  influences  from  the  desire  and  the  will. 

Hostility,  however,  based  upon  intellectual  pride  and  obstinacy 
has  no  such  excuse.  It  is  irrefutable  except  by  ridicule  and  the 
resistance  of  public  opinion.  It  infects  all  minds  sophisticated  by 
knowledge  and  tending  to  defend  preexisting  ideas.  It  causes  a 
sort  of  obsession  which  has  become  fixed  partly  by  personal  inter¬ 
ests  and  partly  by  the  extent  to  which  this  knowledge  represents 

477 


478  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

accepted  scientific  truth.  Nevertheless,  all  intelligent  people  are 
called  upon  to  keep  preconceptions  in  abeyance  in  the  presence  of 
new  facts.  No  doubt  the  discoverer  of  new  truth  may  exhibit  too 
much  haste  to  revolutionize  things,  but  this  fault  is  not  any  worse 
than  an  inflexible  conservatism  in  a  changing  and  progressing 
world.  Truth  is  always  dependent  on  facts  enough  to  make  it  clear 
that  it  represents  some  sort  of  law  in  the  world.  Even  if  facts  are 
exceptional,  they  must  be  compatible  wdth  the  unity  in  nature. 
Frequency  of  occurrence  is  the  evidence  of  law  and  of  articulation 
with  the  cosmic  order.  This  fact  explains,  and  at  least  half  justi¬ 
fies,  the  cautiousness  of  the  average  man  in  weighing  every  claim 
that  comes  along  for  the  supernormal.  But  history  has  shown  us 
that  caution  has  its  limits.  Such  an  influence  might  be  invoked, 
as  it  was  by  the  church,  against  any  change  of  our  ideas  whatever. 
But  no  such  habit  should  characterize  the  scientific  mind.  The 
very  essence  of  science  is  the  understanding  of  change  as  well  as  of 
the  constancies  of  nature.  The  scientist  has  always  insisted  that 
we  relax  religious  obstinacy  and  prejudice  in  the  consideration  of 
hypotheses  that  might  seem  to  conflict  with  preestablished  ideas. 
It  therefore  becomes  obligatory  upon  him  to  practice  his  owm 
preaching  in  the  consideration  of  supernormal  phenomena. 

The  course  suggested,  however,  has  not  often  been  taken.  From 
no  one  has  psychic  research  met  more  opposition  than  from  the 
scientific  man.  His  attitude  is  explicable,  but  not  always  excusable. 
The  conquests  of  physical  science  are  supposed  to  have  eliminated 
the  “  supernatural  ”  from  human  belief,  and  most  scientific  men 
think  that  psychic  research  threatens  to  restore  that  beast  to  power. 
But  there  is  no  danger  that  past  conceptions  will  again  find  cur¬ 
rency,  and  no  serious  consequences  can  happen  from  giving  the  term 
“  supernatural  ”  as  clear  a  meaning  as  that  of  “  nature.’”  Those 
who  reduce  everything  to  “  nature  ”  can  hardly  give  an  intelligible 
account  of  w'hat  they  mean  by  the  term  save  as  the  order  of  fre¬ 
quently  observed  facts.  And  yet  this  is  made  an  idol  for  a  worship 
as  extravagant  as  that  of  a  savage  for  his  fetish. 

The  emphasis,  however,  upon  regularity  is  important.  The 
systematic  and  rational  behavior  of  life  depends  upon  the  con¬ 
stancies  of  the  cosmos.  If  it  w^ere  as  changeable  as  the  super- 


SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS 


479 

naturalist  assumes  it  to  be,  there  would  be  little  opportunity  for 
any  ethical  development  and  perhaps  none  for  the  slow  evolution 
of  human  life  and  its  functions.  It  is  the  constancy  of  “  nature  ” 
that  makes  possible  human  character  and  development.  The  scien¬ 
tific  skeptic  of  the  “  supernatural  ”  has  in  his  hands  the  answer  to 
the  question  ciii  bono,  if  only  he  will  use  it  instead  of  merely  making 
the  concept  of  nature  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  new  dogmatism  and 
a  new  intolerance.  But  in  order  to  defend  regularity,  he  sacrifices 
all  the  benefits  that  come  from  a  spiritual  conception  of  the  world’s 
order.  His  opponent  insists  as  strenuously  on  a  conception  that 
invokes  caprice  against  law.  ^^Ty  are  not  both  law  and  caprice 
as  reconcilable  with  nature  as  with  the  supernatural?  Why  should 
either  of  them  be  regarded  either  as  necessary  or  as  antagonistic 
to  one  or  the  other  of  these  conceptions?  It  is  certain  that  both 
exist,  whatever  view  we  take  of  either  nature  or  the  supernatural. 
What  we  want  is  facts;  we  can  then  decide  whether  they  are  natural 
or  supernatural. 

It  is  wearisome  to  insist  on  the  meaning  of  such  facts  as  I  have 
cited  in  this  volume.  Their  import  is  clear.  They  certainly  make 
a  spiritistic  hypothesis  acceptable.  The  illustrations  quoted  may 
not  suffice  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  a  future  life,  if  taken 
alone  or  regarded  as  the  total  evidence  in  favor  of  such  a  theory, 
and  I  do  not  quote  them  with  the  expectation  that  they  alone  will 
settle  the  issue.  They  are  but  examples  of  phenomena  as  old  as 
history  and  as  extensive  and  constant  as  any  other  phenomenon 
of  nature.  But  they  are  better  accredited  than  most  instances  and 
so  make  it  imperative  for  them  to  be  investigated. 

The  only  difficulty  the  spiritistic  hypothesis  faces  is  the  ignorance 
and  prejudice  of  the  public.  That  ignorance  and  prejudice  may  be 
excusable ;  but  they  are  obstacles,  and  the  only  obstacles,  to  the 
belief  in  immortality.  The  objections  based  upon  the  triviality  of 
the  facts,  the  fragmentary  and  confused  nature  of  the  communica- 
tions,  and  the  absurdity  of  the  revelations  are  beside  the  mark. 
They  betray  total  ignorance  of  the  problem  and  of  the  process  in¬ 
volved  in  getting  the  data.  The  problem  of  the  proof  of  personal 
identity  is  crucial,  and  nothing  but  trivial  facts  will  satisfy  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  such  proof.  The  fragmentary  nature  of  the  messages 


48o  contact  with  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

and  the  apparent  absurdities  of  revelations  about  the  other  world 
are  caused  by  the  process  of  communicating  and  by  the  difficulties 
of  representing  a  different  world  in  terms  of  our  own.  Untrained 
readers  assume  too  readily  that  the  conditions  of  intercourse  be¬ 
tween  the  two  worlds  are  either  like  our  own  or  so  nearly  like  them 
as  not  to  affect  the  contents  of  the  messages.  The  spiritistic  hy¬ 
pothesis  is  not  itself  a  revelation,  but  an  explanation.  Its  develop¬ 
ment  and  ramifications  await  future  work.  At  present  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  as  a  means  of  making  the  main  facts  intelligible.  It  main¬ 
tains  only  that  there  is  scientific  evidence  of  the  survival  of  personal 
consciousness,  and  not  that  we  know  all  about  the  nature  and  con¬ 
ditions  of  a  transcendental  world.  It  establishes  the  main  point, 
and  leaves  the  accessories  of  the  hypothesis  to  be  determined. 

Personally  I  regard  the  fact  of  survival  after  death  as  scien- 
tifically  proved.  I  agree  that  this  opinion  is  not  upheld  in  scien¬ 
tific  quarters.  But  this  is  neither  our  fault  nor  that  of  the  facts. 
Evolution  was  not  believed  until  long  after  it  was  proved.  The 
fault  lay  with  those  who  were  too  ignorant  or  too  stubborn  to  ac- 
I  cept  the  facts.  History  shows  that  every  intelligent  man  who  has 
'  gone  into  this  investigation,  if  he  gave  it  adequate  examination  at 
‘  all,  has  come  out  believing  in  spirits;  this  circumstance  places  the 
burden  of  proof  on  the  shoulders  of  the  skeptic. 

The  present  war  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  making  multitudes 
think  of  the  meaning  of  life  and  death  will  do  more  than  a  hundred 
years  of  academic  talk  to  awaken  interest  in  the  problem.  Thou¬ 
sands  who  suffer  losses  and  ask  what  they  mean,  would  not  think 
of  the  matter  so  keenly  in  the  ordinary  vicissitudes  of  life.  The 
person  suffering  the  pangs  of  grief  or  asking  for  a  solution  of  the 
enigma  of  existence,  and  not  afraid  of  his  neighbors,  will  think 
for  himself ;  and,  even  if  he  does  appear  to  have  an  emotional  bias, 
he  will  see  facts  more  clearly  than  the  man  who  boasts  of  his  exemp¬ 
tion  from  the  influence  of  personal  interest,  but  who,  in  reality,  is 
only  under  the  domination  of  another  interest  equally  strong  and 
more  dangerous  because  the  man  has  the  illusion  that  he  is  free 
from  it.  Those  who  have  to  face  the  realities,  both  economical 
and  moral,  will  not  trust  their  salvation  to  sophists  or  to  men  who 
do  not  enter  into  the  real  problems  of  the  world.  They  will  go 


SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS  481 

straight  to  the  solution  that  fits  the  facts,  and  as  usual  the  academic 
sophist  will  lose  his  hold  on  the  forces  of  civilization.  Insight  has 
more  to  do  with  the  problem  and  its  solution  than  much  learning. 
The  public  will  go  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  and  those 
who  assume  academic  authority  without  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
facts  will  find  themselves  shorn  of  power.  Those  who  should  have 
led  will  have  to  follow.  If  they  do  not  see  their  opportunity,  we 
can  only  repeat  the  warning  of  the  prophet;  Israel  is  joined  to  his 
idols,  let  him  alone. 

The  circumstance  that  gives  so  much  power  to  skepticism  is  the 
uninterrupted  triumph  of  physical  science,  based  on  the  easy  obser¬ 
vation  and  reproduction  of  its  phenomena.  It  has  relied  upon 
sense-perception  for  its  data  and  especially  for  such  data  as  it  can 
easily  verify  in  human  experience.  The  more  elusive  phenomena 
of  nature  it  either  ignores  or  questions,  and  thus  has  established  a 
criterion  of  reality  that  makes  the  claims  of  supersensible  facts 
difficult  to  establish.  Very  early  it  excluded  spiritual  reality  from 
the  causes  of  the  world,  even  when  it  admitted  its  existence.  The 
earlier  and  later  materialists  in  Greek  philosophy  were  at  one  on 
this  point.  They  all  agreed  that  the  gods  existed,  but  they  gave 
them  no  causal  influence  in  the  world.  They  were  assigned  to  a 
place  in  the  intermundia  where  they  were  harmless  and  inefficient, 
where  they  were  equally  unable  to  cause  evil  or  to  do  good.  Their 
position  might  be  envied  by  those  who  suffer  from  the  pains  of  un¬ 
remitting  toil,  but  it  would  offer  no  delightful  prospect  to  those 
who  abhor  idleness.  They  could  not  assuage  grief  and  pain  nor 
exercise  any  benevolent  force  in  the  universe.  They  could  only  live 
in  an  idleness  that  is  as  irksome  to  the  ethical  man  as  it  is  envied 
by  the  unethical.  They  are 

The  Gods  who  haunt 
The  lucid  interspace  of  world  and  world. 

Where  never  creeps  a  cloud,  or  moves  a  wind, 

Nor  ever  falls  the  least  white  star  of  snow. 

Nor  ever  lowest  roll  of  thunder  moans. 

Nor  sound  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to  mar 
Their  sacred  everlasting  calm. 

Beings  that  only  watch  things  go  will  never  be  objects  either  of 
fear  or  reverence,  nor  appear  as  ideals  for  moral  character. 


482  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

But  whatever  we  believe  about  immortality  to-day,  we  cannot 
question  the  causal  influence  of  consciousness  on  the  stream  of 
physical  phenomena.  If  we  once  grant  the  existence  of  spirit,  in¬ 
carnate  or  discamate,  we  must  admit  it  to  a  place  among  the  causes 
in  nature ;  indeed  we  shall  hardly  discover  its  existence  save  through 
its  effects.  But  w'e  do  not  question  its  causal  power  in  the  series  of 
physical  and  mental  phenomena  that  come  to  our  attention,  and  we 
do  not  accept  the  a  priori  theories  that  defined  the  nature  and  limits 
of  mind  in  the  Epicurean  and  other  forms  of  materialism.  All  that 
we  do  is  to  insist  on  evidence;  and  only  the  prejudices  for  a  theory 
that  relies  as  much  on  tradition  as  do  the  orthodoxies  of  religion, 
now  stand  in  the  way  of  a  ready  belief  in  the  existence  of  discamate 
spirit.  The  evidences  of  its  causal  influence  in  the  physical  world 
are  so  plentiful  that  they  are  almost  self-evident.  We  have  there¬ 
fore  only  to  prove  that  it  survives  death,  to  prove  that  its  causal 
action  extends  beyond  the  grave,  as  there  is  no  proof  of  survival 
which  does  not  carry  with  it  the  implication  of  some  influence  on 
the  living  as  the  condition  of  that  proof. 

The  phenomena  of  spiritual  healing  and  of  obsession  well  illus¬ 
trate  the  extent  of  the  causal  action  of  discamate  consciousness. 
The  symptoms  of  hysteria,  of  secondary  personality,  of  some  mala¬ 
dies  diagnosed  as  dementia  precox  and  paranoia,  and  perhaps  others, 
assure  us  of  an  immense  field  for  the  practical  application  of  psychic 
research,  which  will  be  recognized  as  soon  as  the  world  accepts  the 
fact  of  survival.  In  the  recurrence  of  spiritual  healing,  primitive 
Christianity  will  be  revived.  A  new  meaning  wdll  be  put  into  the 
New  Testament  and  the  work  of  Christ. 

Moreover,  the  ethical  value  of  the  belief  in  survival  can  hardly 
be  measured.  An  age  that  has  had  to  give  it  up  because  of  mate¬ 
rialism  and  the  lack  of  evidence  pretends  not  to  be  interested  in  it. 
It  assumes  the  garb  of  courage  and  of  Stoicism,  parading  in  self- 
righteousness  what  is  but  the  virtue  of  necessity.  It  is  hardly  to 
be  blamed.  Our  duty  always  is  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  bargain. 
But  why  insist  that  life  is  a  bad  bargain?  “All  is  well  that  ends 
well,”  even  if  we  have  spilled  the  milk.  Nature  may  not  be  a 
Medusa-head  after  all.  Many  of  her  rougher  actions  and  inflic¬ 
tions  of  pain  are  but  the  just  discipline  for  our  own  vices.  The 


SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS  483 

great  fog-bank  into  which  materialism  sails  is  more  easily  pene¬ 
trated  than  it  surmises.  It  conceals  a  beautiful  sun-lit  sea  and  the 
happy  isles,  and  psychic  research  ventures  on  embarking  where  the 
philosophy  of  Immanuel  Kant  only  warned  the  sailor  against  rocky 
shoals  and  disaster.  Mythology  was  sound  in  its  psychology  and 
its  ethics  when,  after  allowing  the  escape  of  all  the  evils  in  the 
world,  it  left  Hope  at  the  bottom  of  Pandora’s  box. 

No  one  can  act  rationally  in  life  without  hope.  It  is  essential  to 
every  desire  we  have  and  to  every  volition  we  exercise.  There  is 
no  rationality  in  any  act  save  as  we  can  hope  for  its  fruition  as  the 
fulfillment  of  our  wishes.  If  personality  has  any  value  in  nature, 
we  must  appraise  it  as  nature  does.  If  consciousness  perishes  at 
death  it  is  clear  that  hope  has  no  application  beyond  the  grave.  If 
personality  extends  beyond  the  grave,  hope  has  a  wider  sphere  of 
meaning,  and  so  has  life.  Personality  takes  the  chief  place  in  the 
estimation  of  values  and  both  our  individual  and  our  social  ethics 
may  be  based  upon  it.  The  disposition  to  prolong  consciousness 
and  to  value  the  higher  intellectual  and  emotional  expressions  of  it 
above  the  lower  is  so  much  testimony  to  that  evaluation. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  take  an  optimistic  view  of  the  world  in 
dealing  with  the  question.  The  scientific  problem  is  to  guarantee 
survival,  whether  it  is  desirable  or  not,  whether  the  next  world  is 
ideal  or  unpleasantly  real.  In  saying  a  word  for  hope  in  the  scheme 
of  things,  we  may  not  offer  assurance  of  satisfaction  for  every 
.specific  desire  we  cultivate  or  indulge.  It  will  be  enough  to  show 
that  nature  ensures  the  survival  of  personal  identity;  and  then, 
whatever  curtailment  of  our  selfish  expectations  may  follow,  we 
still  have  the  opportunity  of  correction.  Annihilation  will  allow 
neither  progress  nor  correction  of  the  past.  Desire  and  volition 
have  no  meaning  except  with  reference  to  a  future;  and,  with  no 
prospect  of  attainment  of  our  aims,  we  can  have  little  reverence 
for  an  order  that  allows  no  genuine  achievement,  and  only  keeps  us 
at  the  eternal  task  of  Sisyphus. 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  belief  in  immortality  may  be  abused.  It 
is  as  easy  to  be  too  “  other-worldly  ”  as  to  be  too  worldly.  The 
truth  is  beneficial  or  harmful  according  to  the  character  of  the  man 
who  accepts  it.  Guns  and  gunpowder  are  exceedingly  useful  in 


484  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

the  hands  of  the  right  man,  but  a  dangerous  evil  in  tlie  wrong  hands. 
\\'e  prize  liberty,  but  there  is  no  conception  which  cannot  be  abused 
more  than  this.  There  is  probably  not  a  single  truth  which  human 
nature  cannot  pervert.  A  belief  in  a  future  life  is  no  exception. 
But  the  fact  that  it  was  abused  in  the  Middle  Ages,  or  tliat  it  may 
be  too  much  stressed  by  some  minds,  is  no  reason  for  ignoring  the 
doctrine.  Some  tell  us  that  nature  or  Providence  does  not  intend 
for  us  to  know  about  a  future  life.  But  tlie  same  type  of  mind  told 
us  that  we  should  not  inquire  into  the  processes  of  nature.  While 
maintaining  that  nature  is  a  product  of  the  Divine  and  while  en¬ 
joying  the  fruit  of  scientific  conquests  over  it,  they  counselled  neg¬ 
lecting  its  revelations!  There  is  no  truth  that  can  be  made  more 
helpful  to  man  than  a  belief  in  sundval.  It  will  all  depend  on  his 
balance  of  mind.  Disregarding  it  leads  to  emphasis  on  the  mate¬ 
rialism  that  has  nearly  wrecked  civilization  in  the  greatest  war  of 
history.  \\'e  do  not  want  the  belief  established  in  order  to  con¬ 
centrate  interest  again  on  the  hereafter,  but  to  fix  a  balance  in  human 
endeavor.  If  nature  values  the  inner  life,  what  man  has  called  the 
“  spiritual  "  life,  tlie  virtues  of  reflection,  gentilit}",  unselfishness 
and  all  the  attitudes  of  mind  and  will  that  take  him  away  from  an 
exclusively  sensuous  life,  it  is  time  that  we  have  a  philosophy  and 
an  outlook  tliat  helps  to  sustain  tlie  higher  ideals  of  consciousness. 
It  is  for  its  reflex  influence  on  the  ethics  of  the  present  life  that  it 
is  important,  not  for  its  power  to  make  us  ignore  the  imperative 
duties  of  the  present. 

We  are  told  tliat  the  interest  in  immortality  is  a  selfish  one.  It 
is  probable  that  the  belief  can  be  used  as  selfishly  as  any  other,  but 
he  who  lavs  too  much  stress  on  this  aspect  of  it  does  not  know 
human  nature,  ^^'hile  I  see  many  tliat  have  only  a  personal  inter¬ 
est  in  it  and  only  desire  to  gain  a  further  surplus  from  nature  after 
having  an  undue  share  of  this  world’s  goods,  the  most  important 
feeling,  in  my  experience  and  observation,  is  the  altruism  which 
lies  at  the  basis  of  the  most  poignant  grief.  I  find  tliat  those  who 
sutler  most  from  the  doubt  of  immortalit)’,  do  not  care  so  much  for 
survival  for  themselves  as  they  do  for  their  departed  friends.  They 
desire  that  their  loved  ones  shall  “  still  hae  a  stake  ’’  in  the  clash 
of  the  world’s  forces,  ^^'itll  them  it  is  an  altruistic,  not  an  egoistic 


SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS  485 

hope,  an  unselfish,  not  a  selfish  desire.  The  bitterest  pain  and  per¬ 
plexity  come  where  the  affection  is  the  strongest.  In  such  situ¬ 
ations  it  is  quite  as  important  to  assuage  grief  as  it  is  to  satisfy 
appetites.  When  a  man  has  lived  the  properly  ethical  life  it  is 
natural  for  him  to  feel  disturbed  at  the  thought  of  the  interruption 
of  life.  He  must  seek  in  some  belief  a  means  of  interpreting  nature 
consistently  with  his  moral  ideals.  He  must  find  the  clue  to  her 
purposes  that  he  may  be  reconciled  to  the  temporary  appearance  of 
inharmony  in  the  world’s  ethical  order.  He  wants  to  see  far  be¬ 
yond  in  the  future  the  trend  of  events  which  may  sustain  his  faith 
in  an  ethical  order  while  it  keeps  the  torch  of  hope  before  him. 

’T  is  not  for  self  we  feel  the  glow 
Of  passion  for  continued  life. 

But  love  for  those  whose  passage  mars 
The  growth  of  soul  and  all  its  aims. 

For  death,  in  his  remorseless  path, 

Leaves  here  no  evidence  for  hope, 

And  we  must  seek  its  guerdon  there 
Where  chance  may  bring  a  cheering  word 
From  out  the  gates  of  grief  and  pain. 

But  when  we  bridge  the  sombre  gulf 
Twixt  life  and  death,  and  learn  that  love 
Still  waits  upon  the  shining  shores 
Of  time  and  fate  to  meet  us  there. 

We  watch  forever  and  forever 
The  distant  purposes  of  God, 

We  may  say  that  this  is  an  emotional  attitude  of  mind,  and  I 
do  not  question  the  statement.  I  only  say  that  emotion  has  quite 
as  legitimate  a  place  in  the  world  as  intellect.  It  is  the  basis  of  all 
the  ethics  we  possess,  and  intelligence  is  only  a  secondary  acquire¬ 
ment  in  the  cosmos.  Science  shows  us  that  the  chief  function  of 
intelligence  is  to  enable  us  to  occupy  a  better  place  in  the  struggle 
for  existence;  it  is  usually  a  thousandfold  more  egoistic  than 
emotions. 

The  neglect  or  hostility  which  the  subject  receives  is  one  of  the 
curious  problems  of  psychology.  If  a  new  engine  for  an  aeroplane 
is  announced  the  inventor  is  acclaimed  a  benefactor  of  the  world. 
If  some  new  substance  to  take  the  place  of  gasoline  is  discovered, 
all  the  capitalists  in  the  country  tumble  over  each  other  to  get  the 


486  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

control  of  it.  A  new  element  in  chemistry  is  announced  with  all 
the  fervor  of  a  miracle.  Anything  that  will  fill  the  human  belly 
with  the  husks  that  the  swine  do  eat,  is  considered  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  world.  But  if  a  man  offers  evidence  that  he  has  a  soul 
and  that  he  may  expect  to  live  after  death,  he  is  called  insane, 
though  he  may  prove  the  prolongation  of  consciousness,  which  is 
the  one  aspiration  of  every  effort  a  man  makes  in  life!  No  better 
indication  of  the  utter  materialism  of  the  age  could  be  adduced. 
But  at  last  the  consequences  of  war,  bearing  the  fruits  of  material¬ 
ism  in  the  ugly  spectacle  of  death  and  grief,  are  forcing  attention 
on  the  subject. 

The  belief  in  immortality  is  the  keystone  to  the  arch  of  history, 
or  the  pivotal  point  about  which  move  the  intellectual,  the  ethical, 
and  the  political  forces  of  all  time.  If  science  cannot  protect  our 
ethical  ideals  it  will  have  to  succumb  to  the  same  corrosion  that  has 
worn  away  the  church.  Something  must  put  an  end  to  doubt. 
There  are  many  situations  in  life  that  call  for  heroic  measures,  and 
skepticism  on  the  outcome  of  life  offers  no  inducement  to  the  heroic 
virtues. 

Poetry  has  probably  done  more  than  philosophy  to  redeem  the 
human  race.  It  sees  more  than  naked  facts.  These  last  we  must 
see  and  respect,  with  all  the  clearness  that  will  prevent  their  dis¬ 
coloration  from  interest  and  emotion.  But  if  we  suppose  that 
knowledge  achieves  its  ends  without  feeling,  we  shall  miss  the 
main  opportunities  of  life.  Neither  one  nor  the  other  is  the  whole 
object  of  existence.  They  supplement  each  other.  Plato’s  myth 
of  the  chariot  drawn  by  the  two  steeds  of  passion  and  impulse, 
without  the  guidance  of  reason,  illustrate  the  consequences  of  un¬ 
adjusted  energies. 


Wisdom  and  passion 
Playing  for  place, 
Whichever  winneth 
Loses  its  grace. 

When  the  two,  peaceful, 
Mingle  and  kiss. 

Then  cometh  sweetly 
Power  and  bliss. 


SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS  487 

The  Stoic,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Epicurean,  on  the  other, 
equally  miss  the  meaning  of  life.  The  via  media  has  always  been 
the  path  of  sanity  and  common  sense,  and  neither  knowledge  nor 
emotion  alone  will  give  intellectual  and  moral  health.  Their  func¬ 
tions  must  be  adjusted  to  each  other;  only  on  that  condition  will 
a  man  be  saved  the  ravages  of  skepticism  and  the  consequences  of 
libertinism. 

The  age  is  in  the  throes  of  a  search  for  certitude,  and  it  is  not 
limited,  in  that  search,  to  the  problem  of  immortality.  The  belief 
in  immortality,  which  had  been  made  important  for  many  centuries, 
was  doomed  to  decay  unless  assurance  could  be  given  the  human 
mind  regarding  it.  It  had  been  so  closely  related  to  ethics  that  its 
decay  threatened  the  destruction  of  all  ethical  and  spiritual  en¬ 
deavor.  We  take  what  is  certain,  if  it  is  only  the  sensuous  life,  but 
if  we  find  that  nature  assigns  this  a  secondary  place  and  means  to 
preserve  the  inner  spiritual  life  fdr  further  cultivation  the  sacrifice 
of  the  physical  and  the  sensuous  is  rendered  more  easy  and  even 
when  it  has  a  place  in  our  spiritual  development,  it  will  not  have 
the  intensity  of  intere.st  that  it  possesses  when  we  have  the  prospect 
of  nothing  else. 

It  is  easy  for  the  man  who  has  the  comforts  of  life  and  who  has 
stored  up  much  goods,  who  has  been  successful  in  the  struggle  of 
existence,  to  congratulate  himself  on  this  security  and  to  neglect 
Lazarus  lying  at  his  gates.  He  may  thank  God  that  he  is  not  as 
other  men  are.  But  he  should  not  blame  the  unsuccessful  for  tak¬ 
ing  a  less  optimistic  view  of  nature.  If  the  world  has  any  claims 
to  be  regarded  as  good  to  its  creatures,  we  should  find  the  evidence 
of  it  in  its  outcome.  We  may  endure  temporary  inequalities  and 
suffering,  if  all  ends  well.  But  when  the  misfortunes  of  life  are 
not  equally  distributed,  we  must  not  wonder  that  the  victims  of  pain 
and  disappointment  are  rebels.  We  may  become  reconciled  to  pain, 
if  it  results  in  a  healing  discipline,  but  if  the  chance  for  redemption 
and  amelioration  be  forever  cut  off,  the  ugly  spectre  of  death  will 
give  the  final  touch  of  despair  to  human  ideals  and  hopes.  We  need 
to  be  in  a  position  to  see  beyond  the  horizon,  if  the  conflicts  of  the 
present  life  are  to  be  met  with  patience  and  endurance.  The  wider 
outlook  will  soothe  many  a  pain  or  give  it  a  spiritual  significance. 


488  CONTACT  WITH  THE  OTHER  WORLD 

The  sadder  moments  of  a  wearied  hope 
Find  on  their  fringe  a  dream  of  better  days, 

And  while  their  aura  holds  the  leash  of  pain, 

That  keenly  throbs  about  one’s  passing  joys. 

The  bitter  sweet  will  fuse  its  mingled  shades 
Into  the  calm  majestic  life  of  God. 

Were  we  mere  animals  without  ideals  or  hopes,  we  might  be  in¬ 
different  to  the  course  of  nature.  We  might  live  in  the  present 
moment  without  doing  any  violence  to  the  moral  laws.  But  if 
ideals  encourage  in  us  a  life  above  the  sensual  we  need  assurance 
that  nature  will  compensate  us  for  the  present  loss ;  and  if  we  find 
that  survival  is  a  part  of  her  scheme,  the  bitterness  that  would  haimt 
us  if  we  were  without  hope  will  be  less  poignant.  I  do  not  empha¬ 
size  the  joys  of  such  a  hope  or  of  its  fruition.  But  we  need  an 
interpretation  of  the  world  which  will  do  something  to  mitigate 
suffering,  if  we  cannot  escape  it,  or  to  excuse  it,  if  we  find  it  a 
means  to  an  end.  The  sadness  of  sunset  is  only  sublime  pathos 
when  we  are  assured  of  another  dawn. 


INDEX 


Aeschylus,  15 
Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  133 
Alden,  Henry,  196 
American  Society,  34,  55,  39~40 
Ammonius  Saccas,  19 
Anaxagoras,  16 
Ancestor  worship,  13 
Ancients,  Psychic  phenomena  among 
the,  20 

Animism,  3,  14,  16,  18,  382 
Apocatastisis,  The,  20,  30 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  19 
Apparitions,  74-97,  loi,  125,  127,  150, 
342,  357 
Apuleius,  20 

Aristotle,  16,  17,  18,  459 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  265 
Astral  body,  357 
Automatic  writing,  102 
Automatism,  402 

Bagehot,  Walter,  454 

Balfour,  Arthur  James,  34 

Bangs  Sisters,  290 

Baron  von  Reichenbach,  26 

Barrett,  Sir  William  F.,  33,  39,  93 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  296-299,  303- 

304 

Bernheim,  435 
Birchall,  Mr.,  91 
Bishop,  72 
Blackburn,  Mr.  35 
Blaine,  James  G.,  127,  149 
Bourne,  Ansel,  62,  414 
Brent  Roberts,  272 
Brewin,  Charles,  62,  414 
Bridgman,  Laura,  131 
Brougham,  Lord,  32,  125 
Buddhism,  13,  14 
Burton,  Miss,  267,  350 
Bushnell,  Horace,  131 

Cabbage  Head,  269 
Cabral,  Ulysses,  156 
Cahagnet,  26 


Carnegie,  Mr.,  287,  483 
Carpenter,  Dr.,  41 1 
Carpenter,  J.  Estlin,  127 
Causal  influence  of  consciousness,  482 
Chance  coincidence,  59,  66 
Charcot,  485 

Chenoweth,  Mrs.,  39,  78,  99,  too,  113, 
118,  1 19,  120,  180,  183,  188,  193,  197, 
199,  200,  212,  217,  219,  220,  224, 
229,  233  seq.,  283  seq.,  340  seq., 
389,  394  seq. 

Christianity  and  psychic  phenomena, 

15 

Christian  Science,  255 
Clairaudience,  106 
Clairvoyance,  106 
Clark  College,  324 
Clark,  Harrison,  Jr.,  148 
Communicating  process,  104-121 
Subconscious  action,  104;  table  tip¬ 
ping,  planchette,  ouija,  105;  raps, 
106;  clairvoyance  and  clairaudi¬ 
ence,  106;  popular  illusions,  107: 
mimicry,  108;  normal  methods, 
109,  motor  and  sensory  types,  109; 
visions,  109-110;  phantasms  or 
veridical  hallucinations,  no;  picto- 
graphic  process,  111-121 
Communication,  Difficulties  of,  331 
seq. 

Confucianism,  13 
Confusion  and  mistakes,  331 
Conington,  Professor,  126 
Consciousness,  399;  causal  influence 
of,  482 

Coppinger,  Mrs.,  128 
Criterion  of  truth,  44-46 
Crookes,  Sir  William,  32,  338 
Cross  reference  and  cross  correspond¬ 
ence,  166,  387,  389 
“  Crossing  the  Bar,”  173-177 
Cumberland,  72 

Davis,  Andrew  Jackson,  ig,  29,  30,  374, 
420 
489 


INDEX 


Jonson 


490 

De  Camp,  Miss,  196-199 
Dcleuze,  26 

Democritus,  16,  48,  382 
Depew,  Chauncey,  135 
Dexter,  Dr.,  369,  372 
Dis  Debar,  Miss,  285 
Dissociation,  402 
Dowsing,  39 

Duysters,  George  F.,  198 

Earthbound  spirits,  375 
Eddy,  Mrs.  388,  435 
Elliotson,  27 
Epicurus,  447 
Esdaille,  27 
Ethical  value  of  belief  in  immortality, 
482,  484 

Evidence,  Problem  of,  54-71 
Evidence  of  survival,  336-337 
Experiences  of  Well  Known  Persons, 
125,  139 

Lord  Brougham,  125,  Andrew  Lang, 
126;  James  Cotter  Morison,  126; 
G.  J.  Romanes,  127 ;  Stevenson, 
Carpenter,  Johnon,  127;  James  G. 
Blaine,  127-128;  Carl  Schurz,  128; 
Laura  Bridgman,  131 ;  Horace 
Bushnell,  131 ;  Louisa  M.  Alcott, 
133;  Mark  Twain,  133;  Frank  R. 
Stockton,  134;  James  Otis,  135; 
Chauncey  Depew,  135 ;  Ernest 
Thompson  Seton,  136:  Dwight  L. 
Moody,  137:  Sir  Henry  Stanley, 
137:  John  C.  Fremont,  138;  Henry 
Wikoflf,  139;  Dean  Hole,  139 
Experimental  evidence,  165-202 
Explanation,  418 

Fetishism,  3,  14,  16 
Fischer,  Doris,  26,  391-397,  414 
Fox  Sisters.  27,  28,  420 
Fraud,  57-58,  ^ 

Frazer,  12 

Fremont,  Gen.  John  C.,  138 
Frith,  Mr.,  179 

Fullerton,  Professor  George  S.,  34 
Funk,  Dr.,  94,  183,  282-309 

G.  P.  (George  Pelham),  112,  114,  115, 
181,  200,  233,  239 

Gardiner,  Professor  H.  Norman,  89 
Geley,  Dr.,  99 

Gifford,  Robert  Swain,  203-230,  390 


Godfrey.  Rev.  Clarence,  93 
Greek  message,  173-176 
Gurney,  Edmund,  33,  39,  no,  in,  116 
Guthrie,  Malcolm,  91 

Hall,  Pres.  G.  Stanley,  34 
Hallucinations,  no 
Haly,  Mrs.,  153 
Hamilton,  Dail,  127 
Hamilton,  Sir.  William,  41 1 
Hanna,  Mark,  254-255 
Hare,  Dr.,  338-341.  367-373 
Harpers,  268 
Hauffe,  Frederica,  26 
Hays,  Mrs.,  249-281 
Hegel,  24 
Herodotus,  15 
Heysinger,  Dr.,  158 
Hoar,  Senator  George  F.,  324 
Hodges,  N.  D.  C.,  34 
Hodgson,  Richard,  34,  39,  112,  114, 
120,  143,  145,  162,  170,  172, 

181,  183,  184,  200,  233  seq.,  2&4, 

295 

Hole,  Dean,  139 

Hollands,  Mrs.,  39,  168,  170,  179,  389 
Home,  D.  D.,  342,  345 
Homer,  15,  176 
Hope,  483 

“  Hope,  Star,  and  Browning,”  170-173 
Howell,  Mrs.,  162 
Howells,  Mr.  268,  274 
Hull,  Moses,  422 

Hutchings,  Mrs.  Emily  Grant,  249-281 

Identity,  Personal,  65 
Illusions  of  memory,  378 
Imperator,  186,  237,  304 
Ingersoll,  Robert,  264 
Isodorus,  20 

Isolation  of  personality,  53,  70 
Irving,  Washington,  263,  264 

Jamblichus,  19 
James,  Henry,  Jr.,  238,  243 
James,  Professor  William,  39,  loi,  I13, 
114,  187,  191,  231-248,  310,  350, 
380 

Janet,  435 

Jap  Herron,  268-270,  272,  280 
Jennie  P — ,  188 
Johnson,  Miss  Alice,  177 
Jonson,  Ben,  127 


Judaism 


INDEX 


491 


Judaism,  14 
Judgment,  45 
Jung  Stilling,  25 

Kant,  Immanuel,  24,  421,  483 

Karma,  378,  380 

Keiser,  26 

Kerner,  26 

Kluge,  26 

Lang,  Andrew,  23,  32,  126 
Laughing  Water,  395  seq. 

Lecky,  Mr.,  449 
Levitation,  345-347 
Lewis,  Rev.  Garrard,  153 
Life  after  Death,  352-365 

Sense  perception,  352;  Christian 
conception,  353;  supersensible  in 
the  physical,  354;  change  in  con¬ 
ception  of  matter,  355 ;  modern 
materialism,  356 ;  “  spiritual  body 
doctrine,  357;  mental  nature  of 
next  life,  360;  the  subconscious, 
361 

Limitations  of  the  subconscious,  60 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  169 
Lotze,  428 
Lucretius,  447 

Margaret,  392  seq. 

Margaret,  Sleeping,  392  seq. 

Mark  Twain,  249-281 

Relation  to  Mrs.  Hutchings,  249; 
appearance  at  Mrs.  Chenoweth’s, 
253;  name,  254;  personal  identity, 
257;  Washington  Irving  and 
others,  263 ;  Charles  Dickens,  265 ; 
Sesame  as  cross  reference,  267; 
Jap  Herron,  268;  “cabbage  head” 
incident,  269;  Mrs.  Salter,  272; 
problem,  274;  relation  to  second¬ 
ary  personality,  277;  subconscious, 
279 

Marsh,  Luther  R.,  285 
Massey,  Charles  C.,  33 
Materialization,  342-343 
Materialism,  16,  47-53 
Matter,  354 
Meader,  John  R.,  196 
McCreery  sisters,  35-36 
McKinley,  President,  255 
Mediumistic  phenomena,  39 
Mediumship,  401-410 


Definition  of,  401 ;  nature  of,  402- 
405 ;  conditions,  405-406 ;  method 
of  dealing  with,  407-410 
Mental  nature  of  life  after  death, 
360-363 

Mental  picture  process,  111-I19 
Mesmer,  25,  26 
Messages,  Validity  of,  367 
Miles,  Miss,  98,  99 
Minnehaha,  395  seq. 

Moody,  Dwight  L.,  137 
Morison,  James  Cotter,  126 
Morley,  Lord,  441 
Moses,  Stainton,  32,  177,  186,  237 
Muensterberg,  Professor,  350 
Murray,  Professor  Gilbert,  97 
Myers,  Frederic  W.  H.,  33,  97,  99,  in, 
1 16,  155,  156,  157,  159,  166,  170. 
171,  173,  174,  177,  180,  415 

Natural  and  supernatural,  478 
Newcomb,  Professor  Simon,  34 
Newnham,  Rev.  P.  H.,  86 
Neo-Platonism,  18,  19 
Noel,  Roden,  33 

Obsession,  385-400 
Relation  to  Christianity,  385 ;  nature 
of,  386;  cause  of,  387;  cross  refer¬ 
ence,  389;  Thompson-Gifford  case, 
390-391 ;  Doris  Fischer  case,  391- 
397:  origin  of,  398 
Omega,  187,  231.  233,  241,  242 
Oracles,  22 
Otis,  James,  135 

Palladino,  350-351 
Patience  Worth,  249,  262,  263 
Pelham,  George,  181,  264,  266 
Personality,  9-11,  67-71;  knowledge 
of,  69 

Phantasms,  94-97 
Phantasms  of  the  Dead,  150 
Philosophy  and  personality,  68 
Physical  Phenomena  of  Spiritualism, 

335-351 

Levitation,  raps,  light,  etc.,  336;  real 
importance  of,  337-338;  Robert 
Hare,  338-341 ;  Crookes,  Sir  Wil¬ 
liam,  342-345 ;  Crawford,  Dr.  W. 
J-.  345-348:  raps,  348-349:  Miss 
Burton,  349-350 ;  Professor  James. 
350;  Palladino,  350 
Pickering,  Professor  Edward, 


492 


INDEX 


Spiritual  body 


Pictographic  process,  111-121 
Dr.  Hodgson  and  G.  P.,  112;  Pro¬ 
fessor  James,  113;  dream  theory, 
115;  “fugitive  phantasms,”  116; 
visual  and  audible,  118;  direct  and 
indirect  methods,  119 
Piddington,  Mr.,  168,  170,  171,  172,  175, 
176,  178,  179.  180 

Pink  pajamas,  246 

Piper,  Mrs.,  39,  112,  114.  ii7.  120,  142, 
143,  144,  166,  170,  173,  174.  175, 
179,  183,  185,  343,  389 
Planchette,  105 

Plato,  16,  17,  377,  380,  429,  444,  457 
Plotinus,  18,  19,  174,  176,  177  J 
Plutarch,  19,  21,  22 
Podmore,  Mr.,  33,  99,  339-341 
Politics,  etc.  See  “  Psychics  and  Poli¬ 
tics  ” 

Porphyry,  19 
Posthumous  letter,  177 
Prejudice,  478,  479 
Prince,  Dr.  Morton,  391,  395 
Prince,  Du.  Walter  F.,  169,  170,  393, 
394,  396 

Psychic  research,  origin  of,  3-1 1; 
field  of,  5,  33 

Psychic  Research  and  the  War,  443- 
453 

Nature  of  problem,  443;  death  and 
soldiers,  445;  value  of  life,  446; 
ancient  ideas,  447;  materialism, 
448;  Stoicism,  449;  sacrifice,  450; 
salvation,  451 ;  visions  of  Mons, 
etc.,  453 

Psychics  and  Politics,  454-476 
Physics  and  psychology,  454;  Be¬ 
lief  in  immortality,  456;  Coperni- 
can  astronomy,  460;  The  Church, 
461 ;  scientific  progress,  462 ;  The 
Reformation,  464;  decline  of  the 
church,  465;  Christianity,  466-468; 
criterion  of  truth,  469;  physical 
science,  470;  materialism,  471 ;  per¬ 
sonality  and  its  value,  474 
Psychological  Institute,  35 
Psychology,  Religion  and  Medicine, 
428-442 

Changes  of  ideas,  428;  matter  and 
materialism,  430:  medicine,  431; 
religion,  433;  Christian  Science, 
435 ;  mind  and  matter,  436 ;  ethics 
and  therapeutics,  438 


Quentin,  Mrs.  39,  181-183 


Ramsden,  Miss,  98,  99 
Raps,  106,  199-202,  344,  348-349 
Rathbun,  Mrs.,  208,  209,  214,  217,  219, 
223,  229 
Rector,  166 

Reincarnation,  377-384 
Christianity  and,  377 ;  illusions  of 
memory,  378;  loss  of  identity, 
379;  non-ethical,  379;  Professor 
James,  380;  Spiritualism,  382; 
origin  of,  382 

Religion,  etc..  See  “  Psychology,”  etc. 

Also  “  Spiritualism,”  etc. 
Resurrection,  15,  18,  382 
Revelations,  366-376 
Source  and  validity,  366;  Dr.  Hare, 
367;  Judge  Edmunds,  369-373; 
relation  to  psychology  of  art,  373 ; 
contradictions,  375 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  265 
Romanes,  G.  J.,  127 


Saccas,  Alyonius,  19 
Salter,  Mrs.,  272 
Savages,  Belief  among,  12,  46 
Schopenhauer,  24,  41 1 
Schrenck-Notzing,  Baron  von,  435 
Schurz,  Carl,  128 
Science,  49-53 
Scientific  mind,  44 

Secondary  personality,  62-63,  66,  277 
Seer  of  Prevorst,  26 
Self-consciousness,  360 
Sense  perception,  352,  360,  481 
Shaler,  Professor,  240 
Sidgwick,  Mrs.,  151,  152,  176,  219 
Sidgwick,  Professor,  32,  33,  178 
Skepticism,  477,  481 
Smead,  Mrs.,  39,  99,  185,  231  seq.,  389 
Societies  for  Psychical  Research,  32- 
40 

Socrates,  16,  17,  176 
Solomon,  Dr.  Myer,  399 
Sophocles,  15 
Spencer,  Herbert,  12 
Spirit,  Conception  of,  8,  327,  328,  329, 
330 

Spiritistic  hypothesis,  325,  329,  330 
Spiritual  body,  48,  357 


Spiritual  world 


INDEX 


493 


Spiritual  world,  353-365.  367-378 
Spiritualism,  23-31,  328,  382 
Spiritualism,  Belief  in,  6-8 
Spiritualism,  Religion  and  Science, 
420-427 

Fox  sisters,  420;  Christianity,  421; 
modern  tendencies,  422 ;  science, 
424;  spiritism  and  spiritualism,  426 
Standard  of  knowledge,  44 
Stanley,  Sir  Henry,  137 
Stewart,  Professor  Balfour,  33 
Stilling,  Jung,  25 

Stimulus,  instigation  and  transmissive, 

417 

Stoicism,  8,  18,  459 
St  Paul,  15,  18,  48,  447 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  127 
Subconscious,  The,  58-62;  66,  107, 
275-276,  278,  361,  402,  411-419 
Synonyms,  41 1;  relation  to  normal, 
412;  secondary  personality,  412; 
dissociation,  413;  relation  to  spirit 
theory,  414;  Myers’s  conception, 
415;  function  and  content,  416; 
stimulus,  417;  field  of  explanation, 

418 

Subliminal,  411-413 
Supernatural  and  natural,  478 
Supernormal  knowledge,  56 
Survival  proved,  329,  480 
Sutton,  Catherine  Paine,  343 
Swedenborg,  23-25 
Symonds,  John  Addington,  32 

Table  tipping,  105 
Tausch  incidents,  186-196 
Telekinesis,  65,  337,  345 
Telepathy,  36-38,  63,  72-103,  163,  230, 
276,  277,  330,  389 

Thompson-Gifford  case,  203-230,  386, 
390 

Transmigration,  17.  See  also  Reincar¬ 
nation 


Triviality  of  facts,  64-65 
Twain,  Mark,  133 
Tylor,  12 

Unconscious  muscular  action,  348 
Unsophisticated  mind,  43 

Vergil,  457 

Verrall,  Miss  Helen,  166,  168,  172,  179 
Verrall,  Mrs.,  39,  100,  166,  167,  170, 
172,  175,  176,  177,  178,  179.  232, 
245,  389 

Vision  and  hallucination,  59 
Visions  of  the  Dying,  140-164 
Volatile  telum  incident,  166-167 

Well-Known  Persons,  Experiences  of, 

125.  139 

Lord  Brougham,  125;  Andrew  Lang, 
126;  James  Cotter  Morison,  126; 
G.  J.  Romanes,  127;  Stevenson, 
Carpenter,  Jonson,  127:  James  G. 
Blaine,  127-128;  Carl  Schurz,  128; 
Laura  Bridgman,  131 ;  Horace 
Bushnell,  131;  Louisa  M.  Alcott, 
133;  Mark  Twain,  133;  Frank  R. 
Stockton,  134;  James  Otis,  135; 
Chauncey  Depew,  135;  Ernest 
Thompson  Seton,  136;  Dwight  L. 
Moody,  137;  Sir  Henry  Stanley, 
137;  John  C.  Fremont,  138;  Henry 
Wikoff,  139;  Dean  Hole,  139 
Weymouth,  Rev.  A.  B.,  159 
Widow’s  Mite,  296-298,  303,  307 
Wienholdt,  26 
Wikoff,  Henry,  139 
Windridge,  Mrs.,  152 
Wright,  Carroll  D.,  310-325 
World  dominion,  468 

Xenophanes,  14,  459 

Zoellner,  424 


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